Andhra Pradesh finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Saturday once again blamed it on the previous Telugu Desam Party government led by N Chandrababu Naidu for the present financial mess in the state and accused the TDP of indulging in a smear campaign to malign the Jagan Mohan Reddy government on the state finances.
Speaking to reporters, Buggana refuted the TDP allegation that the Jagan government had gone in for indiscriminate borrowing despite increase in the revenues even during the Coronavirus pandemic.
He reminded that between 2014-19, the revenues of the state from liquor, petroleum products and GST had increased at a compounded average growth rate of 10.03 per cent. But in the last two years, the CAGR was only 1.30 per cent.
“On an average, the state had lost Rs 7,948 crore a year due to drop in the revenues,” he said.
Buggana said the tax revenues of the state had remained more or less stagnant at around Rs 57,000 crore in the last two years. He also rejected the allegations of the TDP that the state government had not spent any money on tackling the Covid-19.
“Apart from what was given by the Centre, the state government spent over Rs 7,130 crore from its side in purchasing medicines, vaccines and providing healthcare facilities to the Covid-19 affected patients,” he reminded.
The finance minister reiterated that the previous TDP government had indulged in indiscriminate borrowings during 2014-19 and demanded for what purposes those loans were spent.
“The TDP government had completely ruined the state economy and spent money on unproductive things like Partnership Summits, Nava Nirmana Deekshas and other meaningless programmes,” he said.
He reeled out the welfare schemes being implemented by the present government and said there was an account for every paisa spent by it.
“We can list out how much money we have spent on the welfare schemes and how many people got the benefits along with their bank accounts and Aadhar numbers. Can the TDP provide such an account for the money spent by the Naidu government?” he asked.
