Bhatti pegs Telangana debt at Rs. 8.21 lakh crore, higher than earlier estimates

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday pegged Telangana’s outstanding debts at Rs. 8.21 lakh crore, including pending bills and energy dues, a figure higher than earlier estimates.

Hyderabad: After having presented a white paper in the Assembly in December 2023 and putting Telangana’s total outstanding debts at Rs. 6.71 lakh crore (from 2014 to 2023), Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday jacked up the State’s total outstanding debts to Rs. 8.21 lakh crore.

This includes Rs. 40,154 crore pending bills (employees, capital works, schemes etc) and Rs. 1.09 lakh crore of pending bills (DISCOM Energy dues, Singareni power dues etc), he argued.

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Interestingly, the cabinet Ministers seem to have different claims on the State debts. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday went on record saying Telangana’s outstanding debts stood at Rs. 8.11 lakh crore. However, his cabinet colleague Jupally Krishna Rao put the figure at Rs. 7.30 lakh crore, at a press conference on Wednesday, but on Friday, he jacked up to Rs. 8.21 lakh crore.

During the press conference, Bhatti Vikramarka singled out former Ministers T Harish Rao and KT Rama Rao and criticized them for their remarks on the State’s financial condition. He accused the previous BRS government of pushing Telangana into a debt trap during its ten-year rule and alleged that the opposition was now trying to mislead the public through false propaganda.

He admitted that after assuming office, the Congress government released a White Paper on the State’s finances in the Assembly. In addition, the Congress government, he said, has undertaken debt restructuring. As a result, the repayment burden for the period 2025–26 to 2031–32 has been reduced from Rs. 34,058 crore to Rs.11,915 crore, resulting in savings of Rs. 22,142 crore for the State.

Congress government’s borrowings under scrutiny

Interestingly, while the BRS charged that the Congress government had borrowed Rs. 4.14 lakh crore in the last two and half years, the Deputy Chief Minister maintained that his government had borrowed only Rs.1.77 lakh crore.

Even this figure is at variance with what the Chief Minister said in the Assembly on March 18 this year. Revanth Reddy admitted that the Congress government had borrowed Rs.3.47 lakh crore. 

These loans were raised in the last 27 months from December 1, 2023 to February 28, 2026. In the Socio Economic Outlook 2026 released by the State government, it is clearly mentioned that between December 2023 and December 2025, total borrowings by the State government and related entities amounted to Rs. 3.19 lakh crore.

Bhatti Vikramarka reasoned out that within just two and a half years, the State government has repaid Rs. 2,08,681 crore, including both principal and interest, on loans taken by the previous government, he stressed.