Jagan government pushed Sunrise state into debts: Yanamala Ramakrishnudu

Amaravati: Former Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Saturday slammed the Jagan Mohan Reddy administration for 'mismanaging and hurting' the State economy and its financial situation as a whole with a spree of retrograde and self-defeatist policies.

Ramakrishhnudu, in a statement here deplored that even the so-called welfare sector about which the Chief Minister makes tall claims was reduced to a mere farce with majority deserving sections not getting these benefits. In the first year of his rule, Jagan has miserably failed in all sectors pushing the sunrise AP into debts.

He deplored that the development has come to a standstill while the people were being misled with false misinformation campaign on welfare. The double digit growth rate achieved during the TDP regime was reversed and it came down to 8.16 per cent in just one year as per the government records.

In actual figures, the growth was just half of these claims. With an ulterior motive, the socio-economic survey was filled with lies. Revenue has come down drastically while revenue expenditure has gone up. Capital expenditure was raised two-thirds thereby causing a steep gap in fiscal deficit.

Stating that capital expenditure fell by 35 per cent in 2019-20, Ramakrishnudu said this showed how the YSRCP has brought nil development in its first one year rule. The revenue collections came down by Rs 67,826 cr, which is about 37.9 per cent. But revenue expenditure went up by 6.96 per cent which is Rs 8,949 cr. Total budget expenditure also came down by Rs 10,798 cr which is about 6.6 per cent whereas the TDP achieved 100 per cent budget spending in its five year regime. Capital expenditure fell by Rs 7,131 cr which is a big blow to the economy.

The Opposition Leader in the Council said that during the last one year, YSRCP failures were responsible for revenue deficit going up by Rs 12,748 cr, about 91 per cent. This was due to increased and thoughtless spending on unproductive sectors. Fiscal deficit went up by 14 per cent which is Rs 5,053 cr. Public debt repayments and interest payments increased by Rs 5,501 cr, nearly 20.9 per cent.

Ramakrishnudu expressed concern over market borrowings of Rs 25,243 cr brought in just one year which came to over 72.6 per cent. If the YSRCP goes on borrowing Rs 60,000 cr per year, the total State debt would go up from Rs 3.02 lakh cr now to Rs 6.5 lakh cr by 2023-`24.