VIJAYAWADA: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Payyavula Keshav, in a letter to the Chief Secretary on Tuesday, sought clarifications, while pointing out contravention of constitutional provisions in issuing GO 55 of the water resources department.
He said the State government had established APRSDMPCL with a view to mitigating the drought conditions in severe drought-affected districts of the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh.
In order to strengthen the financial health of APRSDMPCL, GO 55 was issued on June 26 for the collection of water rates, including arrears/dues from the APGENCO / APPDCL in respect of hydel and thermal power plants in Rayalaseema region by APRSDMPCL and these shall be directly paid to the APRSDMPCL instead of remitting them into the government consolidated fund.
“As far as my understanding of legislature proceedings goes, any revenue receipts like cess/taxes/royalty charges / non-tax revenues levied and collected are to be credited to the Consolidated Fund of the State. The collected amount is then spent by the government for the intended purpose after due approval by the Legislature,” he said.
This is nothing but an attempt to avoid and circumvent the scrutiny by the Assembly and in a way is totally bypassing the Assembly budgetary process, he pointed out. The PAC chairman with regard to GO 55 sought to know, whether the Principal Secretary is having such powers as per the business rules of the AP government.