Unused borrowings to fund projects

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 12

Unutilised borrowings of the Haryana Government have found their way to the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) reserve fund, set up to provide funds for many projects that require a gestation period that goes much beyond a year.

An untied fund of Rs 8,585 crore, the MTEF will cater to projects which are spread over three to 10 years and have the potential to make a big impact.

“Under the state development loans, we limited our borrowings to just over Rs 30,000 crore instead of the permitted Rs 40,000 crore, allowing us a cushion of this amount. The Chief Minister decided to put these unutilised borrowings to fund special projects with inter-sectoral spread rather than spending these on routine projects,” said TVSN Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary for Finance.

The Budget specified that the MTEF would help accelerate projects like orbital rail corridor, asset monetisation through infrastructure investment trusts and real estate investment trusts, Global City near Manesar and International Horticulture Market at Ganaur in Sonepat, which were some of the government’s signature projects.

“While regular allocations will follow the conventional annual time frame, the MTEF will be anchored in a specially created reserve fund, that will have the facility of rollover of allocations across years,” the Chief Minister said.