Andhra Pradesh Budget 2025-26: Experts flag increasing public debt

Andhra Pradesh's 2025-26 budget reveals alarming finances with rising public debt and calls for infrastructure investment to reduce deficits.

The Budget for Financial Year 2025-26 presented in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Friday (February 28, 2025) showed an “alarming picture of the finances.”

Public debt is estimated to increase to ₹1.02 lakh crore in 2025-26, while the total outlay has been put at ₹3,22,359 lakh crore.

Andhra Pradesh will be witnessing a quantum jump of more than ₹25,000 crore in public debt in just one year.

Experts opine that it is largely due to “freebies, fewer tax revenues, and meagre capital expenditure,” and advise the government to focus on physical infrastructure and human infrastructure — health and education, and bring down fiscal deficit.

Also, the government has to seek the Union government’s assistance to tide over the crisis.

As per the Budget document, public debt (the total amount of money that a government borrows to fund its spending) is estimated to touch ₹1.03 lakh crore during 2025-26.

It stood at ₹76,209 crore during the Financial Year 2023-24. The budget estimates for 2024-25, when the YSRCP government demitted office, were ₹91,443 crore. However, the revised estimates for 2024-25 pointed out that public debt increased to ₹97,352 crore.