BHUBANESWAR: Loan burden on the State Government is likely to be more than Rs 70,000 crore by March 31, 2017.
With the allocation of Central funds for different schemes slashed drastically, the State Government will have to depend on market borrowing to finance different projects.
The loan burden, which had stabilised during the last couple of years, is on the rise again.
In a written reply to a question in the Assembly, Finance Minister Pradip Amat said the loan burden on the State will be Rs 56,640.12 crore by the end of 2015-16. The burden on the State, which was Rs 43273.38 crore in 2014-15, increased to Rs 56,640.12 crore in a year.
The Government had incurred loan of Rs 4669.89 crore and repaid Rs 2,252.67 crore towards principal loan amount and Rs 3,332.02 crore towards interest during 2004-05. The total loan burden stood at Rs 34,051.18 crore by end of the year.
The Minister said the Government had taken Rs 2,788.19 crore loan in 2009-10 and repaid Rs 1,488.19 crore and Rs 3,044.17 crore towards principal amount and interest respectively.
However, the State Government’s borrowing started increasing from 2014-15. During 2014-15, the Government took a loan of Rs 7,636.54 crore and repaid Rs 3,029.40 crore and Rs 1,810.27 crore towards principal amount and interest, respectively.
In 2000-01, Odisha’s loan burden was Rs 21,001 crore.
Later, it rose to Rs 39,137 crore during 2010-11. Although, it fell to Rs 38,589 crore and Rs 37,980 crore during 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively, it increased to Rs 38,666 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 46,746 crore in 2014-15.
While the Government repaid Rs 2,782 crore principal amount in 2000-01, only Rs 2,083 crore was repaid during 2010-11. In 2011-12, principal loan amount of Rs 2,328 crore was repaid while Rs 3,180 crore was repaid in 2012-13.
Similarly, principal amount of Rs 2,293 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 3,100 crore in 2014-15 was repaid.