Centre has not written off Assam loans

NEW DELHI, March 4 — Notwithstanding the clamour, the Union Finance Ministry has in the last two financial years not written off any loans, including that of Assam. The only two lucky States which had some amounts written off included only two north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. A sum of Rs 1.72 crore was written off in the case of Arunachal Pradesh while Rs 2.52 crore was written off in the case of Manipur. For the current financial year no loan has been written off in respect of any State, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Assam was among six states in the country when in 2000-2001 financial year, a paltry loan amount of Rs 7.60 crore was written off. That year, of the total Rs 58.54 crore of Central loan written off, Rs 28.82 crore was of Andhra Pradesh. According to figures tabled today, Assam, as of March 2002, has an outstanding loan of Rs 3,625.46 crore. In 2001, its outstanding was a staggering Rs 3,712.64 crore.