VIJAYAWADA: Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Saturday lambasted TDP senior leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu for his remarks with regard to the growth rate (GSDP) of the State. He maintained that the GSDP was calculated in a proper manner for the year 2021-22. If calculated on constant prices, it is 11.43% and calculated on current prices, it is 18.47%, which is the highest among the States in the country, he asserted.
“What Yanamala shows as 4% is baseless and the figures of GSDP won’t change because he does not like it,” he pointed out and mentioned that the figures were announced by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in Parliament.
Bugganna said the national GDP was 8.7% and the State had recorded 2.73% more than that. Telangana had recorded 10.88%, while Rajasthan stood second behind AP with 11.04% GSDP. “In GVA, the growth rate of the agriculture and allied sectors was 35.47%. In agriculture, the State recorded a growth of 11.27%, which was far more than the national average of 3%,” he explained.
According to Buggana, in the agriculture and allied sectors, the livestock growth rate was 11.63%, while it was 9.69% in horticulture and 9.08% in aquaculture. A plethora of reforms and development initiatives in the agriculture and allied sectors made the growth rate possible, he maintained. As many as 10,778 RBKs in the State have become agents of change and the reforms in the village administration have contributed to growth, he added.
Even during the Covid-19 pandemic when the nation’s growth rate was negative 6.60%, AP maintained a positive growth rate of 0.08%. In 2018-19, the growth rate in agriculture was 3.54% and in 2021-22 it was 11.27%. In the industrial sector, the growth rate was 3.17% in 2018-19, while it was 12.78% in 2021-22. In the services sector, the growth rate was 4.84% in 2018-19, while it was 9.73% in 2021-22. The overall growth rate was 5.36% in 2018-19 and it improved to 11.43% in 2021-22, he elaborated.
He said the growth rate is a fitting reply to the claims of TDP that AP with a mounting debt burden will become another Sri Lanka. “The TDP is unable to digest the success of YSRC as its chief with his 40 years of political experience had failed to achieve what the young CM has done in the last three-and-a-half years, Buggana said.
On per capita income, he said at the current price levels, AP has Rs 2,07,771, which is 38.5% more than the national average of Rs 1,50,007. AP stood sixth in the country in per capita income, he added. On the inflation rate and AP being toppers, Buggana said it is not a fact and he is ready for an open debate on it.