BRS govt left huge debt burden: CM

Hyderabad: The state government held the previous BRS government responsible for the delay in implementing the six guarantees promised by the Congress before elections.

Replying to a discussion on Rythu Bharosa on Saturday in the Assembly, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the precarious financial condition and the legacy of a huge debt burden that they had inherited had caused the delay in implementing all the promises. The government had to clear the old dues and put the economy back on track and in the process, it could implement only a few of the promises made so far.

The previous government resorted to heavy borrowings with high rates of interest and committed financial irregularities. If it was any other country, they would have been hanged for what they had done.

The Chief Minister said the accumulated debt when they came to power was Rs 7.22 lakh crore. He said they had to borrow money to repay the loans. “We did not construct farmhouses at Gajwel, Janwada or Moinabad like them but used the money to repay the loans left behind by BRS. He further said the borrowings were not Rs 1.27 lakh as alleged by the opposition. The CM pointed out that the previous regime received the loans at the interest of 11.5 %, which he said was unprecedented. He said international banks and agencies like JICA would have provided loans at much lesser interest at the rate of 2% to 4%. Their misgovernance has pushed this government into problems, he said. He said he himself was going to Delhi frequently to seek the advice of the financial experts to find how to bring down the interest burden on loans to 7% to 8%.