CHENNAI: The State’s outstanding debt burden, including liabilities like the provident fund, will cross the `1-lakh crore mark by next month.
Presenting the interim budget for the year 2011-12 in the Assembly, Finance Minister K Anbazhagan said the State had been maintaining its debt very carefully. He said the outstanding debt, which stood at `57,457 crore as of March 31, 2006 (till the previous AIADMK regime), was expected to increase to `1,01,541 crore by March 31, 2011.
According to official sources, during 2009-10, the debt burden stood at `88,882 crore and per capita debt burden was `14,243. It is expected to go up to `1,01,541 crore by March 31, 2011, and the per capita debt will be `15,271. Similarly, the debt is estimated to go up to `1.19 lakh crore in 2011-12 and the per capita debt is likely to be `19,068.
But, official sources said the per capita debt was arrived at based on the 2001 State population — 6.24 crore. If we calculate the per capita debt based on the realistic figure to be arrived at after the 2011 census, the per capita debt will go down drastically.
The increase in the debt in the last five years was pegged at `44,084 crore and the total capital expenditure during the same period — `44,667 crore — showed that the whole of mobilised debt had been utilised for productive purposes.
He said the debt-GSDP ratio of the State government, which was 22.29 per cent at the end of 2005-06, would be just 19.58 per cent at the end of the current fiscal year. The ratio of interest payments to total revenue receipts will be reduced to 11.07 per cent and 11.18 per cent in 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively. It was 13.54 per cent in 2005-06.
The minister said the government was continuously monitoring the sustainability of the debt stock and the medium term fiscal plan envisaged to keep the debt-GSDP ratio around the level projected in the interim budget 2011-12 — 20.46 per cent as against 24 per cent prescribed by the 13th Finance Commission.
The debt burden of Andhra Pradesh is `1.26 lakh crore, of Karnataka is `66,000 crore and of Kerala is `65,000 crore.