The Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Centre to provide a budgetary allocation of ₹4,000 crore to support the construction of the new capital city of Amaravati and reimburse ₹4,092 crore spent on Polavaram.

During the Finance Ministers’ meet, State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, while thanking the Centre for releasing ₹1,500 crore to launch the construction of Greenfield capital city of Amaravati, requested the Centre to approve a grant of ₹4,000 crore in the 2016-17 Union Budget, for financing government buildings and other essential infrastructure and for metro project in Vijayawada.

Land pooling Referring the proposed capital city, the Finance Minister said the innovative approach of land pooling has enabled the State to pool 54,000 acres of land in less than six months by making landowners and cultivators as partners in development.

Requesting for exemption of capital gains tax for those farmers, he said the provisional estimates for various infrastructure projects in Amaravati is estimated to cost about ₹42,935 crore over the next five years.

The Government plans to raise resources for construction of the capital city through innovative means, including floating of Amaravati Development Bonds. Therefore, the Centre was requested that all investment in Amaravati infrastructure be exempted from taxation and the State permitted to seek finance from the National Infrastructure Investment Fund and raise Zero Coupon Bonds and Tax Free Bonds.

The State listed a number of incentives that could be extended to various industries that come up in the Amaravati city region. These include 100 per cent excise duty exemption for 10 years, 100 per cent IT exemption for five years and capital investment subsidy of 15 per cent on plant and machinery.

Making out a case for Special Category Status, the Finance Minister wanted the Centre to consider AP on par with Special Category States for Central allocations and externally-assisted project financing.

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