AP staring at financial crisis, stops payments

Vijayawada, Oct 09: The Andhra Pradesh government is staring at financial crisis in the third quarter of this fiscal and it has stopped all the payments since the last four days. According to reports, Finance department has ordered all treasury and pay and account offices not to release any bill until further orders. The government must opt for overdraft facility immediately to pay pending bills worth Rs 2,500 crore. The government faced similar situation in March 2015. It is said that indiscriminate spending on unproductive works and payment of bills in the fist week of this month, triggered the crisis. In order to avoid overdraft facility, government stopped payment of bills. Some treasuries had made payments in the last four days in violation of Finance department's directions and the government had sought an explanation from them.