As the lockdown adversely impacting the State’s economy, the Telangana Government has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to go for ‘helicopter money’ and ‘quantitative easing’ to improve money circulation in the system and boost economy.

Helicopter money is an unconventional method to empower the public with money to buy things and, thus, boost the economy.

Telangana also wants the Centre to defer the interest payments that States are supposed to remit to the Union government on their borrowings for at least six months.

In the video-conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao wanted the Union Government to increase the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limit to five per cent from the present three per cent to help the States sail through the financial crisis.

While appealing him to extend the lockdown further, the Chief Minister asked the Prime Minister to set up a task force to prepare an action plan to protect the interests of farmers.

During the four-hour long video-conference, the Telangana Chief Minister said there was a need to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities.

“We need to make rice mills functional and link agriculture with the MNREGA. Bring a policy by which farmers would pay half the wages for labourers and other half would be from the MNAREGA funds,” he said.