Revanth Reddy Slams BRS for Skyrocketing State Debt

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy launched a scathing attack on the previous BRS government for financial mismanagement during its decade-long tenure from 2014 to 2024.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday, the Chief Minister accused the BRS regime of pushing the state into a debt-trap of over rupees seven lakh crore and called for severe accountability measures.

“The financial mismanagement committed by the BRS government under former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is nothing short of a crime. BRS rulers should be hanged for this. They should be held accountable for driving Telangana into a financial abyss,” he said, adding that such actions in other countries like Dubai would have led to public punishments such as stoning or hanging on the road.

“While international institutions like the World Bank and JICA provide loans at interest rates as low as 2-4 per cent, the BRS government secured loans from commercial banks at exorbitant 11.5 per cent rates. I visited Delhi 50 times to meet the union finance minister and senior officials seeking restructure of the debt or reduction of the interest rate. It is yet to materialise,” the Chief Minister said.

He revealed figures detailing the state’s rising debt over the past decade. When Telangana was formed in 2014, the state’s debt stood at ₹72,000 crore. However, by December 2023, this amount had ballooned to ₹7,11,911 crore. He noted that the debt repayment burden, which was ₹6,500 crore annually in 2014, had skyrocketed to ₹6,500 crore a month by 2023 due to indiscriminate borrowings and that at mindboggling interest rates.

In comparison, the Congress government’s efforts to rein in debt saw the administration increase the debt burden by only ₹11,000 crore, bringing the total to ₹7,22,788 crore as of December 18, 2024.

“Despite borrowing ₹52,000 crore over the past year, we repaid ₹66,000 crore of the loans taken during the BRS regime. This shows our commitment to restoring fiscal discipline,” the Chief Minister stated.

Revanth Reddy dismissed claims made by BRS member T. Harish Rao that the Congress government had borrowed ₹1.27 lakh crore last year. “If that were true, the state’s debt burden would now stand at ₹8,38,911 crore. The actual figure of ₹7,22,788 crore proves that his claims are baseless and misleading,” he countered.

The Chief Minister also accused the BRS government of manipulating financial data to secure loans beyond its eligibility. He claimed that the BRS administration understated its liabilities and submitted false reports to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and commercial banks.

“They secured ₹1,29,243 crore through 19 corporations but showed only ₹39,867 crore in the budget books. This deliberate misrepresentation misled financial institutions and further deepened the state’s debt crisis,” Reddy said.

He said that the BRS government’s financial mismanagement has left Telangana in a precarious state.

“In 60 years of combined Andhra Pradesh, 16 Chief Ministers together incurred ₹72,000 crore debts for Telangana. But one Chief Minister, Chandrasekhar Rao, single-handedly added ₹7,11,911 crore in less than 10 years,” he stated.