Now, Telangana lawmakers want 3-fold hike in salary

HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding its growing debt burden, the Telangana government is now scouting for new sources for borrowing and the list of bankers include Rabobank of Netherlands.According to the budget figures presented in the assembly last Monday, the total amount of debt crosses Rs 1.3 lakh crore, which includes Rs 83,846 crore public debt accumulated in the past two years and Rs 60,000 crore debt, the new state inherited when it formed in 2014.However, this has not deterred the government to borrow further.Surprisingly, a major chunk of the borrowed money, if it's cleared, would be used for the proposed pay hike for MLAs and MLCs, and for giving away sops for ministers and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself.While the government is proposing a 400 per cent salary hike for legislators as Members' Amenity Committee (MAC), headed by Assembly Speaker S Madhusudana Chary, is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the proposal. Following the meeting, the government is likely to announce pay hike for legislators.“The government was obliged to hike salaries owing to a long pending demand from legislators. And the special fund for the chief minister and ministers is al so justified,“ said deputy chief minister M Mahmood Ali.If the pay hike is through, the MLAs and MLCs will get over Rs four lakh a month instead of their current month y salary of Rs 96,000. This would result in over Rs 100 crore additional burden on the exchequer since beneficiaries of the pay hike include ex-legislators and widows of ormer law-makers, who get government pension.This comes along with Rs 4,765 crore announced in the budget for the newly-created chief minister's special development fund, and Rs 25 crore allotted to each of the 18 ministers. The government's argess results in the fund requirement to the tune of Rs 5,255 crore. And another Rs 52,000 crore is needed for flagship schemes of Mission Bhagiratha and free two-be droom houses for poor. As there is no budgetary alloca tion for these schemes, finan ce minister Etala Rajender has clarified that his govern ment would mobilise funds through external borro wings.“For a government, borrowing is nothing new. If you want development, then you have to borrow,“ said Rajen der.To mobilise funds by borrowing from various sources including Rabobank, New Development Bank of BRICS, Japan Internationa Cooperation Agency (JICA) National Bank for Agricultu re and Rural Development (Nabard), and Housing and Urban Development Bank (Hudco).Experts, however, cried foul saying the government could not borrow money as it would be against law. “The state government cannot borrow beyond Rs 14, 500 cro re, according to the Fiscal Re sponsibility and Budget Ma nagement (FRBM) norms. If the government is projecting these numbers, then it means either it is not serious about its proposals or it is going to use the borrowed money wit hin the allowed limit to hike salaries for MLAs, and the special development funds created for the CM and mini sters,“ said BDA Satya Babu Bose, director of Budget Centre and Governance Ac countability.