Hyderabad: The debt burden of the TS government has crossed the Rs 1 lakh-crore mark. At present, it stands at Rs 1,04,767 crore. The debt burden has resulted in government spending nearly Rs 800 crore towards payment of interest alone to various financial institutions.
This is because the TS government is banking solely on loans to fund its flagship programmes and welfare schemes. The subsidy burden has increased to Rs 30,000 crore due to populist schemes, even as the increased salary bill and mounting expenditure on irrigation projects is forcing the government to secure loans every month.
The government has been auctioning bonds, standing as guarantor for various corporations to mobilise loans. The government has targeted to raise Rs 23,600 crore through auction of bonds this year. Of this, it already raised Rs 4,000 crore in the first three months itself and scheduled another auction on July 12 to raise another Rs 1,000 crore.
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Though Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao recently claimed that the state's own tax revenues earnings have increased by 27 per cent during April-May 2016, over same period last year, it failed to match the rate at which the expenditure has increased.
Sources in the finance department said, “The government's own tax revenue earnings should be over Rs 6,000 crore per month to meet the current expenditure but it managed to reach only Rs 4,300 crore per month during the last four months. Even non-tax revenue earning is discouraging as there is poor response to sale of government lands in Hyderabad and RR districts.”
With the revenue earnings not able to meet the expenditure of day-to-day administration, the government is vying for loans from all possible sources.
The government had secured approvals from Nabard, Hudco and various other financial institutions to implement its flagship programmes of 2BHK housing scheme and Mission Bhagiratha.
