The amount is locked as deposits given to various government bodies and the interest on the same has gone up to Rs930 crore.
The “richest” regional planning authority may be one of the best tag lines for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), but a major chunk of its finances (close to Rs1000 crore) is locked as deposits (which are loans) given to various state government bodies. This may not directly affect the authority but officials feel that it is losing out a lot of interest because of these loans.
According to information accessed by DNA, as many as seven state agencies including the state finance ministry have loan deposits given by the authority.
While the biggest chunk of money has gone to the Maharashtra State Cotton Growers’ Marketing Federation (Rs335 crore), the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) has also received Rs180 crore as deposit from the authority.
Interestingly, the MMRDA has also given deposits to Maharashtra State Finance Corporation (MSFC) which has been closed down by the state government.
According to a senior MMRDA official, this money has been kept as deposits with these organisations following government directives that are issued every now and then. “Since we are a government body which is financially sound, the state gives us directives from time to time asking us to deposit the money with these organisations.
We have to follow the directives issued but the organisations delay the repayment of the funds. In fact, the interest amount for the deposit (which actually is a loan according to sources in the authority) has gone up to a whopping Rs930.53 crore, which is almost equal to the actual loan amount,” said the official requesting anonymity. He further added that though these funds do not matter directly to the authority while carrying out the infrastructure projects, the MMRDA is losing out on a lot of interest from these loans given to agencies.
Additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide did confirm that the authority has given huge deposits to some state agencies. However, she said that the authority is constantly in touch with the agencies for recovery of the funds. “In fact, the chief secretary has a committee which looks into these borrowings. The committee from time to time has been reminding the agencies about the outstanding dues,” Bhide told DNA.
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