Telangana State debt burden to cross Rs 2 lakh crore

Hyderabad: The debt burden of Telangana State is estimated to rise to Rs 2,29,205.16 crore and the burden is accounting for 20.74 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) during the new financial year 2020-21.

Of the over Rs 2.29 lakh crore debt burden, the State government projected Rs 1,87 lakh crore is under open market loans, Rs 8,682 crore loans from Central government, Rs 13,961 crore loans from autonomous bodies and Rs 18,954 crore from special securities and provident fund.

Officials said that the debt burden in 2019-20, government has estimated at Rs 2.03 lakh crore. The government has maintained a strict financial discipline and in the revised estimation, the burden was brought down to Rs 1.99 lakh crore.

Officials said that if the debt burden touched 25 per cent, State will have to face severe financial crisis mainly as it will lose the freedom to seek more loans as per the FRMB ( Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management) Act. Under the Act, State borrowing capacity will go down to 3 per cent once the debt burden touched 25 per cent of the GSDP.

At present, Telangana can borrow up to 3.5 per cent of the GSDP. An official said that the government is serious to adopt a financial discipline in the coming financial year to check the threat of huge debt burden on the State in the next five years and stop losing the freedom of getting more loans within the FRBM act.

In addition to the public debt burden, the government also guarantees for loans to the tune of Rs 40,241 crore as on March one, 2020. Of this, Irrigation sector has taken a loan of Rs 22,380 crore, Mission Bhagiratha -Rs 12,010 crore and others was Rs 5,849 crore.