As Covid-19 positive cases continue to rise and the partial lifting of lockdown by the Union Government coming into force from tomorrow, the Telangana Cabinet is meeting on Sunday to take call on the exemptions and notify the same as the partial easing of the lockdown will come into force from April 20.
Though the Centre has given broad list of exemptions in IT, financial, logistics and agricultural sectors in places that are not impacted by COVID-19, several areas come under the State subjects, giving States to take call on the final list of exemptions.
The neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Government seem to have go with the Central exemptions, with the limited number of non-red zone districts.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had already indicated that agricultural and allied activities, including rice milling and food processing units, will be exempted from lockdown restrictions.
The government is in a fix. If you open the economy, more number of people will come onto the roads, increasing the prospects of rapid spread of the virus. If you don’t, you won’t get revenues.
There’s no let up in the number of novel Coronavirus positive cases.
On one side, the State reported 110 new cases in the last two days alone, with 90 per cent of them coming from Hyderabad alone. This takes the total active positive cases to 605.
On the other, the State’s revenues on a precarious conditions as economic activity came to a grinding halt after the lockdown announced last month.
The real challenge for the government would be the upcoming Ramzan month. Considering the fact that majority of the Novel Coronavirus positive cases are reported in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area, it will be a tough task for the government to handle things in the next one month.
The cash-strapped State is caught between the choices of opening up of economy versus locking down the activities till May 3, the original deadline set by the Union Government to end the nation-wide lockdown.
As against a daily revenue stream of Rs 400 crore, the State government is registering just Rs 2-3 crore, leaving it in a huge short fall. Unable to mobilise funds to bridge the gap, the Government had ‘deferred’ salaries of its employees, saving up to Rs 1,500 crore.
The State had asked the Union Government to ease FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits to 5 per cent from 3 per cent to let it borrow more. The Centre has not responded to this plea yet.