HYDERABAD: Stating that the debt position of the then BRS government was Rs 4,17,000 crore, former finance minister T Harish Rao on Thursday said that the Congress government had taken loans to the tune of Rs 1,27,208 crore in just one year.
Speaking during a short discussion on “Outstanding Liabilities of the State”, the former finance minister offered to tender his resignation in the Speaker format if present government proves that the previous dispensation had not provided farm mechanisation, drip irrigation and not paid Rythu Bima annual installments.
Accusing the Congress government of selling state’s lands, he alleged that the state government sold 400 acres to TGIIC in the survey No 25 in Gachibowli in June at Rs 75 crore per acre. He demanded that the government give lands to TGIIC free of cost if it had not already sold those lands.
While claiming that the state government had taken Rs 1,27,208 crore loan in one year, he said that if the same trend continues, it will avail Rs 6,38,000 crore in the next five years.
He said that as per the “Telangana State Finances — White Paper” presented by Deputy CM and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the outstanding debt of the then BRS government was Rs 6,71,757 crore which, according to him, was false. Quoting the figures from 2023-24 Budget, he said that Vikramarka showed a revenue surplus of Rs 1,704 crore.
“We (BRS) have also given you a revenue surplus,” he said.
He said that the BRS regime took the state finances from Rs 68,000 crore in 2014 to Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2023.
Harish said that they have inherited a debt of Rs 72,658 from the Congress government at the time of formation of Telangana state. He said that the BRS government also inherited bank guarantees totalling Rs 11,609 crore.
“Finance Minister Bhatti Vikramarka used his intelligence and added the Rs 15,118 crore loans availed by the incumbent Congress government in our account. He (Vikramarka) inherited Rs 72,658 crore in our account,” he said.
“A total of Rs 99,385 crore is falsely being added in our account using all their intelligence, and it is not correct to spread Goebbels propaganda with these inflated figures,” he added.
Harish also said that the then BRS government took Rs 3,89,673 crore loans under FRBM, Rs 1,27,208 crore under corporations. For around Rs 1,54,876 crore loans, the state government was not a guarantor, he added.