VIJAYAWADA: Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath lambasted a section of media for its ‘derogatory’ reporting of the Chief Minister’s presentation on State finances in the State Assembly on Friday. He made a point-to-point rebuttal by citing facts and figures from CAG and budgetary documents.
Citing CRISIL report analysing States’ financial position, Buggana said in the current fiscal, the State has not exceeded any limitations set by the Centre. Further, AP is less dependent on market borrowings given its own tax revenues. However, a section of the media has interpreted the same in a negative angle, he said.
“During the change of guard it is normal to keep the bills pending to a maximum extent of Rs 10,000 crore. However, TDP handed over pending bills worth Rs 40,172 crore, which has never happened in the history of the State. As on September 19, pending bills amount to Rs 21,673 crore. In other words, our government has not only cleared its own bills, but also cleared nearly 50% of the bills kept pending by the previous regime,” he explained.
However, the facts were distorted by those favouring the previous regime and misled people. “The CM has clearly mentioned that by the end of May 2019, the total debt was Rs 2,69,46 crore, but it was shown as Rs 2,57,504 crore, which were figures of March 2019. In April and May, was it not TDP, which was the caretaker government?” he asked.
Buggana said in April 2019, the TDP government borrowed Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore on a single day, which never happened anywhere in the country. The purpose of borrowing such a huge amount in April was to purchase votes of women in the name of Pasupu Kumkuma scheme, he alleged.
On the non-guaranteed loans, which was one of the major point highlighted by the reports that he criticised, the minister said in 2014, when TDP came to power, non-guaranteed debt was Rs 22,020 crore and when it stepped down in 2019, it was Rs 65,811 crore. During its five- year rule, the TDP government took Rs 43,791 crore as non-guaranteed loans.
“As on today, it is Rs 74,871 crore, which means our government took only Rs 9,060 crore non-guaranteed loans. Facts speak for themselves as who borrowed how much,” he analysed.On growth of debt to GSDP ratio from 2014-15 to 2021-22, he said the State registered 4.18%, which is at the lower end of the spectrum compared to other major States.