In response to the opposition party’s criticism over the debts of the State government, Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, Finance Minister, has said that the total borrowings of the State government between 2019-23 stood at ₹1.77 lakh crore.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat on Thursday, he said that the Union government in Parliament revealed the details of the State government’s debts in response to a question from the TDP leaders.
“The total outstanding liability of the State government stood at ₹2.64 lakh crore in 2019, and it increased to ₹4.42 lakh crore by 2023. That means, in the last four years, the actual debt of the State government is ₹1.77 lakh crore”Buggana Rajendranath ReddyFinance Minister, Andhra Pradesh
He said that it was revealed by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament just four days back. He said that as per the statement of the Union government, “The total outstanding liability of the State government stood at ₹2.64 lakh crore in 2019, and it increased to ₹4.42 lakh crore by 2023. That means, in the last four years, the actual debt of the State government is ₹1.77 lakh crore”.
He said Andhra Pradesh’s debt increased during the tenure of the former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu and not in the YSRCP government.
Going back to the numbers, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said that 16.8 % of debts increased year-on-year during the first term of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, 17% in the second term and 14.7 % in the third tenure. Whereas the year-on-year debts increased only 9 % in the regime of Dr. YS Rajasekhar Reddy and only 12.4 % in the governance of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He said that despite the two years of COVID-19 pandemic problems, the State government performed well. He added that the average revenue deficit of the State for the last four years is 2.7% only, which is just half of the country’s average revenue deficit for the same period.
With respect to the revenue deficit of the State, the present government performed well when compared with the TDP’s previous regime. He said that between 2014-19, the average Revenue Deficit of India was around 2.5%, and Andhra Pradesh was 2.4%. That means, during the tenure of the TDP, the Revenue Deficit was equal to the country.
On the other hand, the Revenue Deficit of the country is 4.8% from 2019, while for the corresponding period, it is 2.7%in Andhra Pradesh. That means the Revenue Deficit of Andhra Pradesh is half of the country’s statistics, he said.
Further, the Fiscal Deficit of the State government is also reduced, he added. Mr. Rajendranath said that between 2014-19, it was 4.5%, whereas now, in the last four years, it came down to 4%.
Despite knowing all the facts available in the public domain which were released by the RBI, CAG, central government and others, the TDP, BJP, Jana Sena and other political parties have been misleading the people on the State finances, he criticised.
The Finance Minister added that the opposition leaders were unnecessarily criticising the government over the debts by saying that the debts amounted to more than ₹10 lakh crore in the last four years. He also said that the government borrowings through corporations and others are also not being propagated by the opposition parties.
