Senior YSR Congress party leader and Andhra Pradesh state finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Friday asserted that the state’s financial position was good and the state’s debts are well under control.
Speaking to media persons at Vijayawada, Buggana called the bluff of Opposition Telugu Desam Party and its friendly media on the state financial position.
He said the state had better financial management and maintaining financial discipline compared to the previous regime.
Buggana said the state had done well in financial management despite Covid-19 pandemic and the state debt was well in control vis-a-vis the TDP term.
“The annual debt growth rate during the previous TDP government between 2014 and 2019 was 19.2 percent and it was brought down to 15.77 in YSRCP government,” he said.
The fiscal deficit of the state was 4 percent of GSDP on average in the previous government while it was 2.10 percent in 2021-22.
He slammed Opposition for comparing the state with Sri Lanka and reminded that the government has disbursed 1.46 lakh crore directly into the accounts of beneficiaries in a transparent manner under Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT ) schemes and spent another Rs 44,000 crore for Non DBT schemes.
Buggana said works worth a total of Rs 27,448 crore were done under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in last three years while it was Rs 27,340 crore works during the TDP regime between 2014-19.
He said the average rate of interest for borrowing loans in the TDP tenure was 8 percent while it was 7 percent in the current government.
The finance minister flayed opposition for its malicious propaganda on fourteenth and fifteenth finance commission funds and said the state government has cleared the pending arrears of Rs 2,200 crore electricity charges of local bodies.
He said the average investment between 2014-19 in large and medium projects was Rs 11,994 crore while it was Rs 13,201 crore in the present government despite Covid-19 pandemic. He also added that the rank of the state in exports has been improved in this government.
The data proves that TDP and its friendly media has been constantly and blatantly misleading the people on State finances, he added.
