Debt incurred by Jagan government is only Rs 1,77,991 crore, says FM

VIJAYAWADA: Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath has said that the state government’s debt increased by 12.4 per cent only during the 2019-23 period. By contrast, the state debt increase during the TD rule from 2014-19 was  14.7 per cent.

The statement of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament reveals the truth about AP’s debts and proves the allegations from the Opposition parties were wrong. The opposition was alleging that the state under Jagan Reddy incurred a debt of Rs 10 lakh crore. This, he said, was baseless.

The minister explained that AP’s debt increase was 16.8 per cent during Chandrababu's first term (1995-1999), while in his second term (1999-2004) it was 17 per cent. The YSR period  (2004-2009) saw an increase of 9 per cent while Chandrababu's third term (2014-2019) saw a rise of 14.7%.

Addressing the media here on Thursday, Rajendranath stated that the debt incurred by the YSRC government was Rs 1,77,991 crore and the total debt of AP government was Rs 4,42,442 crore.

He explained that the TD took Rs 36,241 crore loans in public account and the YSRC government took only '3,475 crore, which showed the “good financial management” of the present government.

Rajendranath said the revenue increase under the TD was 6 per cent but it increased under the Jagan government to 16.7 per cent. “Naidu drowned AP in debts so no one will believe that he will create wealth.”

He claimed that there was no shock to AP’s economic situation. The debt the state incurred in the four years since 2019 was only Rs 1,77,991 crore, he said.

During the five-year period from 2014-15 to 2018-19, the annual growth rate in AP debt was 14.7 per cent year-on-year and it was only 12.4 per cent during the term of the present government. The revenue deficit was 2.4 per cent during the TD government when the central government's revenue deficit was 2.5 per cent. This meant that the central and state deficits were almost equal. A better scenario prevailed in AP now.

The FM explained that India's revenue deficit was 4.8 per cent during 2019-23, while AP's revenue deficit was only 2.7 per cent.

The FM said, regarding the fiscal deficit, India's average was 3.1 per cent while, for AP, it was 4.5 per cent during the same period under the TD government. In the last four years, the fiscal deficit of the central government was 6.7 per cent, while the AP government recorded a fiscal deficit of only 4 per cent.