Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday, December 20, tabled a white paper in the Assembly stating that the state is drowning in a debt of Rs Rs 6 lakh crore that has gone up from 72,658 crore in 2014-15.
“A careful analysis of the above facts shows that Telangana state which was a revenue surplus state in 2014 and has one of the fastest growing economies in the country is now staring at a debt crisis,” said Dy chief minister.
According to the white paper, the gigantic increase in the debt, almost 10 times, has created an enormous fiscal stress on the state’s finances in terms of its ability to service the debt. “No tangible fiscal assets in proportion to the money spent were created in the past 10 years,” stated the white paper.
It adds that a situation where the state had positive balances for all the 100% of days in 2014, the situation now was that the state had positive balances in less than 10% of the days.
A huge gap between the budgeted and actual money spent on major welfare schemes such as Dalit Bandhu and other welfare programs aimed at the welfare of ST, BC and minorities has also been wittnessed.
“Every effort will be made to increase the state’s resources and direct expenditures toward uplifting the impoverished, while reducing unnecessary spending,” said deputy chief minister and finance minister Bhatti Vikramarka.
Health
Telangana is estimated to spend only 5% of the overall budgeted expenditure in the fianncial year 2023-24 in the health and family welfare sector. According to the report reffered to, published by PRS (October 2023), the estimated expenditure is the fourth lowest in the country and below the national average of, 6.2 percent, by 1.2 percentage points.
Education
According to the PRS report in the department of education, Telangana is expected to spend 7.6% of their total budgetary alloocation for the financial year which is the lowest in the country and almost half the national average.
Fiscal deficit
The state’s fiscal deficit, between the financial year 2014-15 and 2021-22, grew at an average annual rate of 33.1%. The shortfall in the state’s revenues in comparison with its expenditure was nearly 5 times in the same duration.
Fiscal deficit an indicator of the total borrowings needed by the government, which is the total difference between the total expenditure and the total income.
