World Bank all praise for state govt

HYDERABAD: The World Bank (WB) has suggested further "fine tuning" of power subsidy scheme and expressed its satisfaction over the modifications done in the free power policy by the government, which is now targeted at the beneficiaries. The Bank is over all happy with the state government and offered more funding.
However, the WB did not specify what more fine tuning is required in the free power policy.It is learnt that the Bank officials would personally discuss the issue with the government some time later as any suggestion given by the WB on paper is attracting the criticism of the opposition parties in the state.
The World Bank in its appraisal report sent to the state government recently, deeply appreciated the fiscal performance of the government and said that the "Andhra Pradesh''s fiscal parameters stayed on course and improved." The WB reportedly looked into three aspects, fiscal performance, power sector and public enterprises reforms.
The Bank said that the new power policy was specifically targeted at the poor people and appreciated the public enterprises reforms undertaken by the state government. The Bank noted that the government had achieved targets for the last two successive years, official sources told The Times of India. The WB also satisfied with the utilisation of two instalments of Structural Adjustment Loans (SALs) by the government.
The government reportedly did not show keen interest in obtaining any major fresh loans from the WB in the coming years. The Bank has cleared the SAL but due to a minor hitch at the centre, the amount could not be released. The 12th Finance Commission, has not given its approval for the third instalment of SAL, sources said.
The government is taking Rs 1300 crore loan for the urban local bodies and another Rs 1600 crore for improving the road network in the state. In addition to these two major loans, the government is not willing to approach the WB for other loans, it is learnt. However the reasons are not known.