Slash in loan limit a slap in AP goverment's face: Yanamala Ramakrishnudu

Mangalagiri: Former minister and TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Thursday expressed surprise that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was not displaying any financial discipline even though the Central government had imposed huge cuts in the borrowing limit of Andhra Pradesh.

Ramakrishnudu said that the Central cuts in AP loan limits came even as finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has been making repeated visits to Delhi for approvals for making more borrowings from the open market. The state was pushed into a deep crisis with regard to the financial responsibility and budget management (FRBM), he observed.

In a statement here, the former finance minister said that the Central government officials were shocked on seeing the overall borrowings report of the AP finance department for April, 2021.

AP got over Rs 17,924 crore loan in excess of 4 per cent limit on the SGDP for 2020-'21. As a result, the Centre reduced borrowing limits. Now, the AP government could make new loans of just Rs 27,668 crore for 2021-`22.

Ramakrishnudu said that the Jagan regime was not taking any corrective steps and it was making more mistakes despite cautionary warnings from the Central officials. The SK Singh-led committee on FRBM warned AP in April 2020 itself, he pointed out.

He alleged that Jagan Mohan Reddy's bankrupt policies were responsible for AP standing in third place among debt-ridden states in the country.

The TDP senior leader said that it was for the first time in the State's history that the unemployed youth were taking their own lives, losing hopes of finding a job. The unemployment rate stood at just 3.6 per cent by 2019 when the Chandrababu Naidu rule ended.

Now, it went up to an alarming 13.5 per cent under just two years of the Jagan rule. The TDP government made just Rs 26,000 crore loans on an average per year but the YSRCP government has been taking Rs 70,000 crore loans per year and still there was no development at all, he said.