The financial arm of a US-based investment company had approached the actress to invest US $10 billion for infrastructure projects at an interest rate of just 1.8 per cent
You may find this hard to believe, but yesteryear star, actress Hema Malini, who is also a BJP MP from Mathura, has come up with a proposal because of which Maharashtra can get a financial loan of $10 billion, and that too at an interest rate of 1.8 per cent per annum.
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Hema Malini
For this, she had a meeting with Finance and Planning Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar at the state guesthouse Sahyadri, on Wednesday afternoon. The financial arm of a US-based investment company wants to invest the $10 billion for infrastructure projects.
According to sources from the Finance Ministry, the investment firm approached Hema Malini and was interested in investing in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. But since Maharashtra is a BJP-run state, Hema Malini decided to pitch Maharashtra to the firm and had an extensive meeting regarding this issue with Mungantiwar.
While the finance minister found the investment offer very lucrative, as the money is huge and interest rate low too, he has put forth a condition. “The condition from our side is that the loan amount won’t be based on the exchange rate. Instead it should be fixed and the fluctuations in the rupee vs dollar rate shouldn’t be counted.
If the firm agrees to it, we may think about it,” said Mungantiwar. The other hurdle is that the firm expects that the Central government should take the surety for the loan, which will be granted to the state. According to sources in the ministry, the Central government shouldn’t have an issue with it, because both the Central and state governments are headed by the BJP.
However, what came to many as a surprise is that the entire delegation was led by Hema Malini, who is seen as an ornamental Member of Parliament by many within the BJP too. “Many think the celebrity MPs in BJP do not work, this is an example to prove them wrong as this shows that such complex issues are also dealt with by an MP, who has no background in finance,” said a senior BJP functionary. Calls to Hema Malini didn’t get a reply.