The outstanding public debt of Telangana has risen by almost four times since the formation of the state in June 2014 till the financial year 2021-22, the Union finance ministry informed the Parliament on Monday.
The state had an outstanding public debt of ₹75,577 crore as on June 2, 2014 when Telangana was formed as the AP Reorganisation Act came into effect.
In the first year of its formation, the state had resorted to the public borrowing of ₹8,121 crore from several sources, the ministry stated.
Every year, the state continued to borrow loans, resulting in mounting public debt.
“During 2021-22, the state went in for a huge borrowing of ₹39,433 crore, taking the overall outstanding public debt to ₹2,83,452 crore,” Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in his written reply to Congress MP from Nalgonda, N Uttam Kumar Reddy in Lok Sabha.
Besides these public borrowings, the state government had also stood guarantee for multiple state-owned public sector undertakings and corporations which obtained loans to the tune of ₹1,50,365 crore from several public sector banks, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), central lending agencies like Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Rural Infrastructure Development Corporation (RIDC), Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF) etc, the Union minister said.
Some of these borrowings by the state-owned corporations and PSUs include ₹1.30 lakh crore from 12 banks, ₹11,424 crore from NABARD, ₹8,871 crore from RIDC and ₹972 crore from WIF, the reply stated. “This has taken the overall debt of the Telangana government to ₹4,33,817 crore till October 22,” the Union minister said.
He pointed out that like all other states, Telangana, too, had enacted Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, according to which, the state legislature has to monitor debts of state-owned entities.
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.
