Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister and finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka flayed BRS leader T. Harish Rao for trying to mislead the Assembly and reiterated that the previous BRS regime had taken a debt of Rs 7 lakh crores. He rubbished the BRS leader’s contention, who pegged it at only Rs 4 lakh crores.
Answering a query on the loans availed by the state from December 2023 to November 30, 2024 in the Assembly, Bhatti Vikramarka said, “It has taken a loan of Rs 51,188 crores as FRBM (fiscal responsibility budget management) loans and Rs 61,991.94 crores as non-FRBM loans drawn by corporations/SPVs (special protection vehicles). The public sector undertakings have taken a loan of Rs 10,099.70 crores in the corresponding period. The government had presented a white paper after we came to power and is ready for a discussion on the issue.”
The government has paid Rs 66,000 crores as interest and principal on debt in the last 11 months after we came to power and paid Rs 21,000 crores to farmers. The state has been saddled by debt by the BRS and the burden which was Rs 6,000 crores in 2014 has risen ten times now. Bills to the tune of Rs 40,000 crores were kept pending by the BRS, he said.
Reacting to the minister’s comments, Harish Rao said, “Twenty BRS MLAs gave a privilege motion for misleading the House for pegging the debt at Rs 7 lakh crores and not Rs 4 lakh crore. The state took Rs 1,27,218 crores in the last one year and not Rs 51,188 crores. At this rate the government will take Rs 6 lakh crores of loan by the end of its tenure. The state was forced to take loans during the Covid pandemic period when the country was in financial trouble and the Centre had asked us to increase the capital expenditure.”
The minister, however, charged the BRS leader of lying and said his party had even changed the rules of the House when they were in power. This barred holding of placards but they are being observed in breach by the party itself. They failed to give three-acre land to Dalits and jobs as promised. I announced that we would pay Rs 12,000 to farm labourers while replying to a question by a journalist and did not intend to disregard the Assembly, he said.
Elaborating further, he accused the BRS of not paying discoms for the free power supplied to farmers and kept them pending. “The menu rates for hostel students were kept unchanged for 10 years but we increased them by 40 per cent and cosmetic charges by 200 per cent.”
