Congress government in Telangana borrows Rs.72,500 crore in 300 days

The State debt stands at around Rs.72,500 crore since the Congress came to power, while the market borrowings are at around Rs.32,500 crore in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year.

Hyderabad: The Congress-led State government has been on an unprecedented borrowing spree. Since coming to power in December last year, the State government has borrowed an average of Rs.241 crore per day in the last 300-odd days. Currently, the State debt stands at around Rs.72,500 crore since the Congress came to power, while the market borrowings are at around Rs.32,500 crore in the first two quarters of the current fiscal year.

The borrowing began with a Rs.500 crore loan on December 12, 2023, and has continued at an alarming rate, with loans averaging Rs.5,000 crore per month. As of September 30, Rs.47,618 crore of the debt was directly sourced from the Reserve Bank of India through market borrowings. During the last month alone, the State government secured Rs.2,500 crore on September 3, Rs.1,500 crore on September 10, Rs.500 crore on September 17 and another Rs.1,000 crore in the last week of September.

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The State government is likely to raise another Rs.7,400 crore through market borrowings in the third quarter (October to December) of 2024-25. As per the indicative calendar of market borrowings announced by the RBI, Telangana would raise Rs.4,400 crore in October, Rs.2,000 crore in November and Rs.1,000 crore in December on seven different dates.

After criticising the previous BRS government for pushing the State into a debt trap during the elections, the Congress government has now exceeded its own debt targets. In the 2023-24 budget, the BRS government had proposed raising Rs.52,576 crore in debt. However, the Congress raised the target to Rs.62,012 crore for this fiscal year i.e. around Rs.10,000 crore more than the previous administration. Of the total debt target, the State government has already obtained Rs.32,500 crore.

Additionally, the government has extended guarantees worth Rs.24,877 crore to various corporations, pushing the total burden on the State’s population of four crore people to Rs.17,873 per individual. Experts warn that these guarantees could lead to increased taxation or service charges, further impacting the public.

Despite obtaining such huge loans, the State government did not implement any major scheme or project excluding partial implementation of the crop loan waiver. Typically, government loans are used for major infrastructure or utility projects, and hence, financial analysts are seeking clarity on which projects, if any, have been initiated by the Congress administration. They caution that if the current rate of borrowing continues, the debt burden could spiral further, leaving future generations to shoulder the consequences.