BHUBANESWAR:Even as the condition of the State economy has looked up during recent times, spending by Odisha Government in different schemes with an eye on next elections will take the debt burden to Rs 92,000 crore by the year end.
This was revealed by Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera in a written reply to a question in the ongoing Assembly session. Matter of concern is that the State Government has taken more loans to announce freebies for the people without spending funds to complete any projects.
The Government’s debt burden has increased by Rs 55,426.53 crore from 2000-01 till July end this year. The loan burden of the State at the end of 2000-01 was Rs 21,001.88 crore, which increased to Rs 76,428.41 crore till July-end. The BJD Government which is ruling the State since 2000-01 has taken loan of more than Rs 55,000 crore.
However, the available funds were not utilised on infrastructure projects as is evident from the lack of roads, hospitals and schools in many areas of the State. Though development councils were constituted in all the tribal-dominated districts, it was seen as a move to placate ruling party politicians from the areas rather than accelerate the development process of the backward areas.
The Government borrowed Rs 99,031.30 crore between 2000-01 and July-end of financial year 2018-19 while only Rs 37,703.64 crore loan were repaid during the period. The loan burden increased by nearly 62 per cent in comparison to the repayment of the existing loan.
The Government borrowed the highest amount in past three years, Rs 11,625.31 crore in 2015-16, Rs 13,080.17 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 14,419.41 crore in 2017-18. However, the Government has made repayment of Rs 2,881.37 crore in 2015-16, Rs 2,962.05 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 2,690.21 crore in 2017-18. Till July of 2018-19, the State has raised Rs 3074.89 crore while Rs 511.13 crore was repaid.
Besides, the Government had borrowed Rs 8,000 crore from open market during 2017-18. As per the projection made by the Government in the annual Budget, the debt burden of Odisha will be Rs 91,943 crore by end of 2018-19, which is 20.73 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
However, the State Government has not accepting the national small saving fund (NSSF) from Centre and repaid the high interest charged loan taken from open market.