HYDERABAD: THE State government on Tuesday told the Telangana High Court that it had so far released Rs 622 crore more than the alleged dues payable to the TSRTC. An amount of Rs 125 crore is payable to the corporation by the end of March next year. The total support extended by the government to TSRTC from 2014-15 (FY) was Rs 4,253 crore, it said.
“The government also paid GHMC arrears and the dues from the APSRTC period to the corporation,” the government told the court.
Further, the State submitted that it had addressed a letter to the Centre seeking financial support to meet the employees’ demands, as the latter held 31 per cent equity in the TSRTC. As the matter requires time for examination by the Centre, the State government urged the court to grant 10 days to file a response.
In this regard, the State, represented by Principal Finance Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, filed an affidavit before the division bench dealing with the PIL filed by R Subender Singh, a student of Osmania University.
State Advocate General BS Prasad, while placing the affidavit before the court, said that extending 47 crore financial support to the corporation cannot be met immediately as there was a slowdown in the economy, resulting in a reduction in the State revenues. The government has reduced the size of the budget from Rs 1.82 lakh crore to Rs 1.46 lakh crore in a matter of four months due to the slowdown. In spite of financial difficulties, the government had released Rs 425 crore out of the budget of Rs 550 crore, he added.
As for the alleged dues to the corporation, the AG said that the government had released Rs 3403.36 crore through budgetary support and an additional amount of Rs 850 crore as government guarantee loans. The total support extended from 2014-15 was more than the amount allegedly claimed as dues. With regard to the GHMC dues of Rs 1,492 crore, the civic body had so far paid just Rs 335 crore. The rest was also paid by the government, he said.
