Jagan dares Naidu to convince people

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy dared his arch rival and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu to convince the people of anything he says, including the latest promise that he would continue the welfare schemes of the YSR Congress government.

Dismissing the allegations of excess borrowings and reckless spending by his government as a smear campaign by Naidu and the media houses loyal to him, the Chief Minister, armed with statistical data, said his government is always well within borrowing limits fixed by the Centre.

“Who in Andhra Pradesh believes him (Naidu),” Jagan told Deccan Chronicle. The Direct Benefit Transfer amounting to nearly two lakh crore rupees helped people in particular poor survive, sustain and pump back into the economy, he pointed out.

According to the Chief Minister, the borrowings resorted to by the Naidu government when the overall economy was registering growth were much higher than his government’s at a time when economy had nosedived due to global pandemic. The compounded annual growth rate of state debt during 2014-19 was 19.02 per cent against 13.55 per cent between 2019-23.

When compared with Centre, the state’s debt grew at 19.02 per cent CAGR during 2014-19 while that of the Centre was just 9.89 per cent. On the contrary, the state’s debt grew at 13.55 per cent between 2019-23 during which period the Centre’s debt growth stood at 13.85 per cent.

The state’s debt grew at a very fast pace when there was no significant economic stress (during the Naidu regime) and grew at a slower pace in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s regime when the debt burden increased across economies.

Referring to the net borrowing ceiling fixed by the Centre, state financial adviser D. Krishna said the TD government had resorted to borrowing of Rs 48,128 cr in excess to the ceiling in the first five years post-bifurcation, while the Jagan Mohan Reddy government borrowed Rs 2,696 crore less than the permitted ceiling.

On contributing to the national income, he said that owning to favourable policies of the YSRC government, the average contribution to national income during the TD regime was 4.45 per cent which had risen to 5 per cent in the present government.