HYDERABAD: While the BRS expresses anxiety over the pending gram panchayat bills incurred by sarpanches, official data has revealed that the previous BRS government itself kept the matching grants pending for years.
TNIE accessed the official documents, showing the Central (14th, 15th Finance Commission) and State Matching Grants (SMG) release and balance statements.
It is pertinent to note that the BRS did not release 42% of SMG funds out of a total of Rs 10,170 crore between 2014-15 to 2023-24. A whopping sum of Rs 4,181.95 crore was pending till the day BRS stepped down, the data showed.
The only exception was the financial year 2020-21 when the then BRS government released all Rs 1,847 crore. In 2021-2022, the BRS released Rs 1,615 crore out of Rs 1,865 crore sanctioned.
Meanwhile, the Congress government has been releasing some of the pending bills ever since it came to power. Recently, the Congress government clarified that they will clear all the pending bills by the end of the current financial year, suggesting not to get into the trap laid out by BRS leaders.
It is important to note that the grama panchayat would have three different heads of accounts, including taxes, state finance commission grants, and central grants. While there was no dispute with the two other categories, the SMG is what the former sarpanches are demanding the state government to release.