Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has defended his government taking loans for developmental projects. Dismissing the opposition’s criticism on loans, he said there is a lot of difference between “a government taking a loan and a private entity taking a loan”.

“Where and how you are using the loans you raised holds the key. It is part of pooling up resources by the government,” he said. “We have asked the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary to raise funds for the Kaleshwaram project,” he said.

Replying to a question in the State Assembly on Saturday, he said a State has to follow certain statutory norms before going for a loan. “You need to conform to various norms. We (the States) don’t have autonomy (to do so). The Centre controls the broad fiscal policy,” he said.

“The Centre is delaying release of our share in the devolution every month. Earlier, the States used to get the funds by the first day of every month. Now it is delayed by more than two weeks,” he said.

Claiming that the State’s prudent financial policies earned it credibility in the financial markets, he said the Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation had offered to give a loan of ₹15,000 crore recently.

Refuting that the government was on a loan-raising spree, he said the State never crossed the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limit. “We have never defaulted in servicing the debt. The response to our bonds in the financial market is overwhelming, thanks to the prudent policies,” he said.

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