Naidu making false claims on State’s debt, says Buggana

Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy refutes TDP's allegations of state finances in disarray and debts of ₹13 lakh crore.

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Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has strongly refuted the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s allegations that the State finances were in a disarray and debts touched ₹13 lakh crore. TDP leaders, including former Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, were issuing irresponsible statements on the State finances, and baseless allegations that the State slipped into debt, said Mr. Buggana.

Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat at Velagapudi near here on Thursday, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said that  the total debts of the State government would be around ₹7 lakh crore. But the TDP levelled baseless allegations that ₹10 lakh crore was the total debt. In fact, ₹4 lakh crore debt against the total debt of ₹7 lakh crore was borrowed by the TDP government. Sweeping them under the carpet, Mr. Naidu and his party colleagues were making baseless allegations to hoodwink the people, he said. 

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total debt of Andhra Pradesh as on March 2023 is ₹4,28,715 crore. The RBI documents mentioned that ₹2,64,512 crore were the total debts as on March 2019. Also, the TDP government availed another ₹7,346 crore from March 2019 to May 2019, he said.

It was also important to understand that ₹1,53,346 crore was the total debt in 2014, the year the TDP came to power, and it touched ₹4,12,288 crore by May 2019. In comparison, the YSRCP government borrowed ₹6,38,217 crore during the last four and a half years. While the debt increased by 21.8% annually during the TDP rule, it was only 12% during the YSRCP rule, despite the fact that the COVID-19 had impacted the revenues significantly, he said. 

The Finance Minister said even if their calculations that ₹3.76 lakh crore borrowings were availed from open market were to be considered, ₹2.64 lakh crore was availed during the TDP rule. Similarly, ₹8,256 crore towards UDAY Bonds were taken in 2016 when the TDP was in power. Likewise, ₹33,118 crore was taken by the TDP government towards the  External Aided Projects (EAP), he said.

‘’The TDP leaders say that ₹95,000 crore towards non-guarantee power sector loan was there. Of this, ₹69,596 crore was taken during their rule. In the same manner, the TDP government issued ₹1,500 crore CRDA bonds. As much as ₹22,000 crore against ₹50,000 crore loan taken by the Civil Supplies Corporation was taken during the TDP rule. There is no truth that the government has taken ₹50,000 crore through the Beverages Corporation. The fact is that only ₹36,000 crore was taken. The total loan availed through the Power Finance Corporation was ₹95,000 crore. Of this, ₹70,000 crore was taken during the TDP rule,’‘ the Finance Minister said.