VIJAYAWADA: Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said on Sunday that AP took loans of Rs 1,71,176 crore, including the loans by public sector units, and every rupee spent by the state government is accounted for.
Keeping in view the welfare of the people, the YSR Congress government has distributed Rs 1,70,000 crore through direct benefit transfer (DBT) system to the poor and the middle-income groups among the SCs, STs, BCs through 26 welfare schemes under the Navratna initiative.
Reddy refuted the statement of Telugu Desam leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu that the government took loans of Rs 8,00,000 crore. “TD leaders are not ready to admit that public welfare schemes are reaching the people and meeting their needs in an unprecedented manner, the minister said.
He recalled that opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu and other TD leaders were alleging that Andhra Pradesh was in a debt trap and would become another Sri Lanka. “Now they are talking about Nigeria and Zimbabwe.”
Reddy said the financial situation of AP would have been better had it not been for the Covid19 spread. “The income of the state government had decreased by about Rs 8,000 crore as a result. The government helped the poor by directly depositing Rs 57,512 crore into people’s bank accounts through DBT during the Corona times and an additional Rs 7,130 crore was spent to provide Covid-related services.”
He said that in the five-year TD tenure (2014-19), borrowings of AP had increased by 19.6 per cent. In the three years of the YSRC term so far (2019-22), the borrowings of public sector units increased by only 15.5 per cent.
“During the TD government’s term, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the central government increased by 9.89 per cent during 2014-19, while AP state’s CAGR increased by 16.80 per cent. “During the TD rule, contrary to FRBM norms, about Rs 17,000 crore of additional debt was incurred by the state violating central norms, as was stated by the Union Finance Ministry. This had a huge adverse impact on the YSRC government as the Centre imposed curbs on the state’s borrowings,” he said.
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