Whenever there is an opportunity, Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claims that Telangana is a rich state and revenue surplus, compared to many other states in the country.
He always states that Telangana has prospered a lot in the last eight years and has become a role model for many other states in the country in terms of development and in per capita income.
But on Monday, the Centre has clearly exposed KCR’s bluff, stating that Telangana is not cash surplus, but has been reeling under heavy debts.
The outstanding public debt of the state has increased by almost four times in the last eight years, since its formation in June 2014.
According to the written reply given by Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary to a question posed by Congress MP Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy, the state’s outstanding public debt has gone up from Rs 75,577 crore as on June 2, 2014 to Rs 2,83,452 crore till March 31, 2022.
In the first year of its formation, the state had resorted to the public borrowing of Rs 8,121 crore. Year after year, the borrowings continued, resulting in mounting of the public debt.
“During 2021-22, the state went in for a huge borrowing of Rs 39,433 crore, taking the overall outstanding public debt to Rs 2,83,452 crore,” Chaudhary said.
Apart from the public borrowing by the state government, various state-owned corporations and public sector undertakings obtained loans to the extent of Rs 1,50,365 crore from various public sector banks and central lending agencies.
Some of these borrowings by the state-owned corporations and PSUs include Rs 1.30 lakh crore from 12 banks, Rs 11,424 crore from NABARD, Rs 8,871 crore from RIDC and Rs 972 crore from WIF.
“This has taken the overall debt of the Telangana government to Rs 4,33,817 crore till October 22,” the union minister said.
Though the public sector banks had not given any loan to the Telangana government directly till October 22, they had given loans to the state-owned corporations and PSUs, the union minister added.