AP to raise Rs 1,500 crore through securities

HYDERABAD:  Just one week into the new financial year, the state government is set to sell securities to mobilise Rs 1,500 crore at a time when its financial health has become the subject of debate. Just two days ago, finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy maintained that the state’s financial health was fine.Principal secretary (finance) V Bhaskar through a press communique on Thursday informed that the government would sell 10-year-dated securities in the form of stock, by auction, for an aggregate of Rs 1,500 crore. The auction would be conducted by the Reserve Bank of India at its Mumbai office on April 10.There were reports that the state’s financial position was “too precarious”. But the officials claims that the state treasury have a comfortable liquidity position. “In 2010-11 fiscal, the state drew money from the Ways and Means Account (WMA) and paid Rs 218 crore as interest. In the revised estimates of 2011-12 Budget, it earmarked Rs 1,000 crore for WMA repayment,” former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said.The state’s debt burden increased to Rs 1.66 lakh crore in the last eight years of Congress rule,  he added.