HYDERABAD: BJP MLA from Huzurabad Etala Rajendar, who served as finance minister in the TRS Cabinet, challenged his former colleague and the current finance minister Harish Rao to an open debate on the state’s fiscal health while
castigating the Telangana government of financial mismanagement.
At a press conference, Rajendar launched a scathing attack on the Telangana
government over the state's rising debt burden, accusing Chief Minister K.
Chandrashekar Rao of turning the state into a “troublesome mess of loans”
that requires Rs 36,000 crore in interest payments alone each year. These
loans include those made under the FRBM provisions as well as those made by
government-owned entities for which the state government has stood as a
guarantee, he explained.
The former FM stated that the CM should depute Harish Rao for a debate on
the state's financial health, and that he would be available for such a
discussion at a time and location determined by the Chief Minister.
According to Rajendar, it has become customary for the Chief Minister and
the state government to blame the centre for all of Telangana's economic
woes, but the fact remains that the state's financial mess was created by
the Chief Minister himself.
The state had a debt burden of Rs 325,709 crore as of 2020-21, he said,
adding that the state would have to incur new borrowings to repay the
principal amount. "Worse, he said, unlike in the past when loan terms were
around 8 or 12 years, the KCR government is taking loans with 25-year loan
tenure, effectively declaring that he will borrow as he pleases and leave
those who come after him to shoulder the loan and interest burden," Rajendar
said.
Budgetary expenditures, he claimed, were being inflated without any basis in
reality. For instance, the government adds in the budget its expectations of
funds from the Centre which in reality will not happen, and then claim the
Centre is not giving anything to the state. For instance, the TRS government
continues to falsely claim that Niti Ayog mandated Rs 18,000 crore for
Mission Bhagiratha and Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya, despite the fact
that Niti Ayog can only make recommendations. “Unless the Finance Commission says give, the Centre does not, but these funds are shown in the budget as firmed up amounts, inflating the budget, and then used to criticize the
Centre,” Rajendar explained.
This is a government that has thrown all fiscal planning out of the window
and is doing whatever it wants with no regard for fiscal discipline. A state
that claims to have Rs 1,05,000 lakh crore in its revenue should be able to
manage well on its own, but the TRS government has demonstrated that it
cannot. Worse, liquor sales accounted for Rs 33,000 crore of the claimed own
tax revenue of Rs 96,845 crore for 2020-21. Half of the state’s tax revenues
this year are estimated to be Rs 45,000 crore from excise, demonstrating the
state’s dependence on liquor sales for revenue, Rajendar said.
