‘20 states express interest to avail extra borrowing’

AS MANY as 20 states have proven curiosity for getting extra borrowing house for the ability sector underneath a central scheme.
The Ministry of Finance had launched a programme in June final 12 months to permit extra borrowing house of Rs 80,000 crore to states, which is conditional on them enterprise and sustaining particular reforms within the energy sector.
REC Ltd is working as nodal company for implementation of the scheme, for the Ministry of Power. An announcement issued by the Power Ministry on Tuesday stated, “This financial year (2021-22), almost 20 states have already shown interest in taking benefit under the scheme.”
Andhra Pradesh is the one state to achieve getting over Rs 2,100 crore underneath the programme, the assertion added. “Based on the recommendations of Ministry of Power in respect of such proposal from Andhra Pradesh state, Ministry of Finance had accorded their approval and the state has already availed borrowings of more than Rs 2100 crore, to partly utilise such allowed additional borrowing space,” it famous.

Manipur and Rajasthan’s proposals are additionally underneath energetic consideration on the Finance Ministry, each of which can be eligible for the utmost restrict of 0.50 per cent elevated borrowing house, primarily based on reforms carried out by them. Rest of the states are additionally submitting their proposals.
Under the programme, the extra borrowing restrict permitted for energy sector reforms is 0.5 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product.
This being the primary 12 months (2021-22) of the present model of the scheme, the necessities of reforms and actions has been stored much less onerous, with the bar raised for future years, pushing the states in the direction of greater stage reforms, it added.