Telangana wants to boost ₹68,000 cr to plug the hole between expenditure targets and income receipts

During the last 10 years, Telangana has typically made nationwide headlines. Its per capita revenue has gone up 3 times to ₹3.47 lakh far surpassing the nationwide common. It muscled its strategy to be amongst the top-5 producers of paddy within the nation. At ₹14.63 lakh crore, the GSDP (Gross State Home Product) grew by 12 per cent during the last yr, beating the nationwide common of 9.1 per cent.

However in the course of the interval, the State’s monetary well being was hit as its debt elevated to ₹6.71 lakh crore in 2023-24 from ₹72,000 crore.

As he introduced the Finances on Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramaka indicated the debt burden and the price of debt servicing on the exchequer.

The Socio-Financial Outlook had handled the difficulty intimately. In 2015-16, the State’s debt-to-GSDP ratio was one of many lowest within the nation at 15.7 per cent. By 2023-24, this ratio had practically doubled to 27.8 per cent, surpassing the 25 per cent restrict set by the Fiscal Accountability and Finances Administration (FRBM) Act. The Act bars the States from borrowing past the restrict to guard them from collapsing financially.

Dedicated expenditure

The State’s skill to spend on capital expenditure is additional impacted by the sharp improve within the dedicated bills (salaries and pensions). This has elevated to ₹60,168 crore, which is sort of half of the State’s income receipts of ₹1.27 lakh crore.

This implies it is going to be left with solely half of its receipts to attend to those dedicated bills. When you add the debt servicing element of ₹19,161 crore, the cash out there in hand will probably be a lot much less. The burden of servicing budgetary and off-budget borrowings has grown considerably, now consuming 34% of the State’s income receipts in 2023-24.

Furthermore, the FM must present for ₹53,000 crore to fulfill the Abhaya Hastam (Six Ensures).  It will make the Authorities go for extra borrowings, which might pressure the State to go for extra loans.

The State, which borrowed ₹45,000 crore in 2020-21, is planning to boost ₹68,525 crore in loans and borrowings to plug the yawning hole, caught in a vicious cycle.