TRS, TD face huge debt crisis, says ADR report

Hyderabad: Ruling parties Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Telugu Desam (TD) are facing huge burden of debt among regional political parties, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Friday. 

The association released the report after analysing assets and liabilities of the regional parties. The TRS and the TD happen to be the top two regional parties in terms of liabilities. 

“Highest liabilities during the financial year 2015-16 was declared by the TRS (Rs 15.97 crore) but the party had declared ‘Nil’ liabilities during the financial year 2011-12. Second highest liability was declared by the TD with Rs 8.186 crore,” the report said.

The liabilities declared by regional parties fall under two major heads: Borrowings (from banks, overdraft facilities, and sundry creditors) and other liabilities.

Interestingly, the assets of the TD, since 2014, had increased from Rs 14.6 crore to Rs 65.82 crore. The TRS, which is in power in Telangana since 2014, had seen its assets jump from Rs 5.37 crore to Rs 20.61 crore.

Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party emerged as the richest regional party declaring assets worth Rs 634.96 crore in 2015-16 among 20 regional parties, followed by Rs 257.18 crore of DMK and Rs 224.84 crore of AIADMK.

“During 2011-12, the declared assets of the SP was Rs 212.86 crore which increased by 198 per cent to Rs 634.96 crores in 2015-16. The total assets of AIADMK increased by 155 per cent between the financial year 2011-12  and 2015-16, from Rs 88.21 crore to Rs 224.87 crore,” the ADR report said.

The assets declared by regional parties fall under six major heads: fixed assets, loans & advances, deposits, TDS, investments and other assets.

During the financial year 2011-12, the regional parties declared maximum assets under deposits which amounted to Rs 331.54 crore (68.77% of total assets) which further increased to Rs 1,054.80 crore (80.19% of total assets) in the financial year 2015-16.

New political parties to join the list were YSR Congress registered in March 2011, and Aam Aadmi Party registered in November 2012.

“The average assets declared by these two parties during the financial year 2012-13 was Rs 1.165 crore which increased to Rs 3.765 crore during the financial year 2015-16,” the report said. Shiv Sena showed a positive trend by reducing its liabilities in 2015-16.