No money, cut down expenditure, Yanamala to AP officials

Hyderabad, Nov 10: Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu today made it public that the state treasury is not having enough funds to spend for employee salaries and welfare schemes. Speaking to officials at a meeting in the state Secretariat in Hyderabad this morning, the finance minister is believed to have said that the state is staring at a deficit budget of Rs 7,000 crores during the 2015-16 fiscal. He told the officials that all the ministries and departments will have to drastically cut down on their expenditure. He informed that a letter to this effect will soon be sent to all the secretaries of all the ministries and departments. Yanamala said that the state has already spent and additional amount of Rs 10,000 crore. Citing the removal of levy system as the main reason for a huge shortfall in the revenue collections this year to the state, Yanamala said all departments should understand the situation and carefully spend funds.