YSRCP govt blames TDP, Centre for State debts

AP had to pay heavily due to unjust bifurcation, pandemic-induced lockdown leading to real GDP during first quarter of the year contracted by 23.9% over the corresponding period of the previous financial year the govt said in a statement

Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh Government has justified the alarming increase in liabilities of the State due to pandemic fallout, failure of the Centre's commitment after bifurcation and ill-conceived policies of the erstwhile Telugu Desam Party regime.

Over the five-year period of 2014-19, the servicing cost of the debt had risen to more than Rs 25,000 crore. In a statement while blaming the impact of pandemic and failure of the Central Government in fulfilling the promises it made at the time of bifurcation, the State said in a detailed statement that had it been borrowing supported productive expenditure during the TDP rule, various sectors in the State would have been substantially improved. However, this was not the case.

"Owing to the misgovernance during 2014-19, sectors such as agriculture, health and education have fared poorly. Agriculture debt waiver was promised by the previous TDP government. The agricultural advances outstanding on March 31, 2014, in accordance with the minutes of 184th SLBC meeting was Rs 87, 612 crore. However, the then government limited the waiver amount to Rs 24,000 crore duly imposing several conditions. Actually, the disbursed amount was close to Rs 15,300 crore," the statement said.

It said the YSRCP Government had formulated several interventions to ensure good progress in all the sectors and fulfilled almost 90 per cent of the promises it made during the elections. The YSRCP Government said it was forced to borrow loans heavily due to the policies of the TDP regime, failure of the Centre to fulfill its promises and fallout of the pandemic on the State economy.

However, it is important to note that, unlike the previous government, the present government did not borrow recklessly. The figures themselves demonstrate the growth in debt of the State did not substantially exceed that of the Central Government debt, the statement contended.

Blaming the Central Government, the State said the Government of India had borrowed Rs 18,48,655 crore during the year-the highest the country had ever witnessed. On the other hand, AP had to pay heavily due to unjust bifurcation, pandemic-induced lockdown leading to real GDP during first quarter of the year contracted by 23.9 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous financial year.