AP State racing towards debt trap

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh is getting into a debt trap. The debt burden in the state is heavily increasing year after year, according to the Union Government.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudary said that debt in 2018 was Rs 2,29,333.8 crore whereas during the current financial year has gone up to Rs 3,98,903.6 crore.

The Minister said the debt percentage in 2017-18 had come down 9.8 per cent but now it has gone up by 17.1 per cent. When the TDP came to power in 2014, the debt burden in GSD was 42.3 per cent but in 2015 it came down to 23.3 per cent.

By 2021, it has gone up to 36.5% of GSDP, he said. The State Government was raising more debts than what it had proposed in the 2022-23 budget and it was not a healthy trend, he said.

The Minister said States which maintain debt below 25 per cent of the total GSDP are considered to be in healthy financial status.