Why was Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy not able to defend on why their government was preferring high interest loans of 8 to 10 per cent from foreign private firms while loans at far less interest rates were available? The World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency were giving massive loans at very low interests of 1.4 to 3.2 per cent.
Raising this point, TDP spokesperson K. Pattabhi demanded an investigation into the money laundering resorted to by over four suitcase companies being run by the YS family in Chennai at a single address. The seizure of Rs. 5.27 Cr from a car allegedly having Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy’s sticker was just an example of how the ruling YSRCP leaders were looting AP people’s money and moving it out of the country to turn it into white money through their trusts. Mr. Rajendranath claimed that the AP revenue receipts stood at Rs. 1.14 lakh Cr for 2019-`20 under the YSRCP government. But the fact is that this was achieved during the previous year, 2018-`19, under the TDP regime. There was a 37.9 per cent fall in revenue in the first one year rule of Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy. The TDP hit back saying that obviously, Buggana was getting confused as he was unable to make wrong projections in a convincing manner. It was clear that the Minister’s confusion was because he was under tremendous pressure from the Chief Minister to attack the Opposition TDP leaders whether there was logic or not.
TDP said Mr. Rajendranath Reddy has neither experience nor moral standing to find fault with former Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on the budget figures and calculations. Mr. Pattabhi Ram asserted that Mr. Ramakrishnudu’s analysis was correct that the AP income came down by 37.95 per cent from Rs. 1.78 lakh Cr to Rs. 1.10 lakh Cr under YSRCP rule. But in a very ignorant manner, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy was claiming that there was just a 2.2 per cent decrease. This was nothing but a comedy skit being played by the Minister in order to betray the people of the state. The revenue expenditure has increased by 6.96 per cent from Rs. 1.28 lakh Cr in 2018-`19 to Rs. 1.37 lakh Cr in 2019-2020.
