RBI figures show Telangana’s financial health in green, not in red as BJP says

Telangana is only in 11th place in terms of outstanding liabilities of all the States whereas several BJP-ruled States are in top 10 with heavier liabilities.

Hyderabad: Disproving the repeated allegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party, especially union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, that Telangana’s financial health was in a precarious position, figures published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) indicate that the State was actually doing much better than many States, particularly BJP-ruled ones.

According to the latest Handbook of Statistics released by the RBI, Telangana is only in the 11th place in terms of outstanding liabilities of all the States till the end of March 2022. This is when several BJP-ruled States are in the top 10 with heavier liabilities.

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The State’s outstanding liabilities, comprising internal debts including various types of bonds, loans from banks and financial institutions, along with loans and advances from the Centre, are pegged at Rs 3.12 lakh crore at the end of March 2022.

This is in comparison with Tamil Nadu, which has the highest outstanding liabilities amounting to Rs 6.59 lakh crore by March 2022, while the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh stood second with Rs 6.53 lakh crore, followed by Maharashtra with Rs 6.09 lakh crore. Other BJP-ruled States like Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and the Congress-ruled Rajasthan too were ranked among the top 10 States with highest liabilities in the country.

In terms of interest payable against outstanding debts and liabilities, the Telangana government is paying Rs 17,584 crore and has been placed at 14th among other States i.e. lower that its liabilities.

“This is because we negotiated with funding agencies and struck a deal for charging lesser interest rates,” an official explained.

Experts indicate that considering the latest report by the RBI, Telangana’s financial health was actually green, and not in the red as was being projected by BJP leaders.

The State is placed in sixth position in State-owned tax revenue with Rs.92,910 crore in 2021-22 and the top position in State-owned non tax revenue with Rs 30,557 crore. These recorded a significant growth from Rs.29,288 crore and Rs.6,447 crore respectively in 2014-15.

Further, Telangana is the fifth largest State among large States with Rs.61,343 crore of capital expenditure. The State is setting new benchmarks in terms of growth by scoring a GSDP (at current prices) of Rs.11.48 lakh crore for 2021-22, up from Rs.5.05 lakh crore in 2014-15, which is a 127 per cent increase, a point that Sitharaman chose to ignore while accusing the State government of pushing Telangana into a debt crisis.