Budget further pushed TG into debt trap

Hyderabad: The BJP spokesperson, Rani Rudrama, on Monday termed the budget for 2024–25 a failure to make provisions to deliver the electoral promises and a walk in the footsteps of the BRS regime to further push the State into a debt trap.

Addressing the media, she criticised the budget for failing to address education, women, and health subjects. ‘The budget raises State debt’.

According to details of the socio-economic outlook released by the government, the per capita debt of people till the financial year 2023–24 is Rs 1,76,000 crore. During the fiscal 2024–25 budget, the government has shown the budget debt will touch Rs 70,000 crore when considering non-budgetary debts and the mortgaging of properties from no-tax sources. According to calculations included in the budget, the government will borrow Rs 100,000 lakh crore.

Referring to Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s remarks, she said that the State is trying to raise thousands of crores of loans through merchant bankers. According to this calculation, the government proposed raising debt to exceed the per capita debt of people to exceed Rs 2 lakh by the year-end. The income receipts show that, excluding the Central funds and loans, the income is more than Rs 27,000 crore than in the previous years.

“Does that mean the government wants to increase liquor prices, registration, power, and bus charges to break the backs of people?” she asked. Similarly, the non-tax income is shown as Rs 35,208 crore. Where did this come from? Does the government want to sell its land? The difference between the budget allocations and revised estimates during 2023–24 stood at 17 per cent. The budget proposals for 2024–25 are going the same way.