Jagan’s 6 policies destroyed state: Yanamala

Vijayawada: With the six destructive economic policies — bad debt, high inflation, high unemployment, high deficits, system collapse — Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has completely ruined the state, alleged the former finance minister and leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu here on Friday.

In a press note released here, Ramakrishnudu said that Jagan has looted the natural resources in the state as part of his policy to ransack Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister has robbed a whopping Rs 6 lakh crore in the past five years, he claimed and expressed concern that the inflation rate which should not exceed two to three per cent has now touched an alarming 8.5 per cent while the unemployment rate is 24 per cent.

The budgetary deficit which was Rs 35,467 crore in 20018-19 has reached Rs 52,508 crore by 2022-23 while the revenue deficit which was Rs 13,899 crore in 2018-19 has gone up to Rs 43,487 crore by 2022-23, Ramakrishnudu said.

The YSRCP government is not revealing the facts on the actual financial position of the state but is trying to mislead the people by making false statements on the floor of the Assembly, the former finance minister felt.

The budgetary estimates which generally get the nod of the Legislature do not have any value in the Jagan Mohan Reddy rule, he said. Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has kept as secret even the loans raised during the 2022-23 fiscal, the TDP politburo member criticised. Pointing out that at least Rs 1 lakh crore has been raised as non-budgetary loans in this year alone, he said that in the past five years a whopping Rs 5 lakh crore has been borrowed under this category.

The whole financial year of 2022-23 was run completely on debts raised from the RBI, he said, adding that over draft has been raised for 152 days in this fiscal. Ramakrishnudu demanded an explanation from the state government on what happened to the Rs 1,18,039 crore raised as loan from the RBI in the 2022-23 fiscal. Corporation loans are now Rs 5 lakh crore, he said, and stated that the details on how this money is spent are not provided even to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Observing that both the RBI and the Centre have already cautioned the state government on going for such huge loans, the TDP leader said that the RBI has even told the nationalised banks to be cautious while granting loans to the state government. Despite having raised such a huge amount of loans there is no development in the state, the leader of the Opposition in the Upper House said.

The State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) was Rs 11,22,837 crore and this government has given false information that the SGST has gone up to 13,17,728 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal, he said. When the funds allocated as per the budgetary estimates are not spent, how the SGST will grow and how the average revenue will increase, he asked.

In the budget speech, it is wrongly projected that the poverty has gone down, Ramakrishnudu said and pointed out that in the Human Development Index the state stood at 20th position. “The other southern states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala are far ahead of us in poverty eradication and even the neighbouring Telangana state which has less resources than us is ahead of us,” Ramakrishnu said.

Even for Aarogyasri, dues amounting to Rs 1,200 crore are pending clearance, the former finance minister said and asked is this the poverty eradication which Jagan has been claiming.