Gujarat Takes An Overdraft Of Rs 5,200 Crore In 18 Months

The Gujarat government, to overcome the financial crunch, had taken an overdraft of a whopping Rs 5,200 crore during the last one-and-a-half months. For this, the state government paid Rs 1.38 crore towards interest.

The state finance minister Vajubhai Vala said that the main reason for the overdraft was to fight natural calamities like cyclone, earthquake, etc in the state. Apart from it, the overdraft which drawn last October, was meant to make the payments to contractors, businessmen, etc.

The government had overdrawn an amount of Rs 3,200 crore by March 2001 and the repayment of it, however, was made in time. Similarly, an amount of Rs 2,000 crore was withdrawn by June 2001. For all these overdrafts, a sizeable amount of Rs 1.38 crore was paid towards the interest on it.

Meanwhile, the state