Note ban: Telangana may lose Rs 2,000 crore per month?

Hyderabad: Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao on Friday said State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is “concerned” about the implications of the Centres decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

“It is not that he is not happy (with the Centre’s decision). It is just that the impact we see in terms of State’s revenues, in terms of how the State is going to shape up right after this. As the gentleman running the State, it is something that is obviously, he is little concerned about. It is absolutely untrue that he is unhappy,” KTR son of KCR said.

Sources had said that the Chief Minister, who met the Governor on Thursday understood to have expressed his “unhappiness” over the likely negative impact of the decision to demonetise high-currency notes.

The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes is likely to cause about Rs 2,000 crore loss to Telangana per month, Rao told the Governor, according to sources.

The Centre’s decision would adversely affect the real estate sector in Telangana and also transactions in motor vehicles, sources said quoting the CM.

He said the State Government is in the process of trying to minimise the impact.

“We are still assessing the impact and the fallout of this decision. In the long run, we all agree, that it is a great thing for the country and State as well. But I think the short term and medium term implications are something that we are concerned. This is what the Chief Minister had shared with the Governor,” the IT minister said.

He said the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had agreed to his proposal to collect the some of utility charges such as power and municipal tax in older denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 for a limited period.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the Hyderabad Metro Water Board yesterday announced separately that they will accept payments with demonetised notes till Friday.

He suggested that the common man of this country should not suffer as result of the decisions of the Government.

PTI