Vijayawada: State slipping into debt quicksand says APCC president Dr Sake Sailajanath

Vijayawada: The State government has been slipping to the quicksand of debts due to the policies of the Jagan administration, said Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Dr Sake Sailajanath.

He said in a statement here on Tuesday after the Budget was introduced in the Assembly that it was proposed to raise loans worth Rs 62,380 crore afresh. "Keeping in view the last year's experience, it would go up further," he said.

The Budget showed the revenue at Rs 1.60 lakh crore but it was not clear from where that amount would materialise, he said recalling that the government could not get adequate revenue last year and went for overdraft every month.

Stating that the Jagan administration had no financial discipline, he said that the State government needs to pay Rs 20,323 crore by way of interest on loans while the deficit was Rs 48,295 crore.

"It is a clear indication that the State was slipping into the quicksand of debts taking the people with it," he remarked.

Dr Sailajanath recalled that the government had presented the proposals for Rs 2,27,975 crore last year but spent only Rs 1,66,322 crore which established wide gap between the proposals and actual expenditure.

In essence, the government did not spend 38 per cent of the proposed budget, he said. He recalled that while the government allocated Rs 18,328 crore for agriculture last year but actually spent Rs 6,548 crore.

Likewise it had spent 6,406 crore on Health as against the allocation of Rs 11,399 crore and Rs 4,999 crore on Irrigation as against the allocation of Rs 13,139 crore. "The wide gap between the allocation and the actual spending was not healthy for any State," he said.

He pointed out that the budget did not specifically mention the funds for the SC and ST sub-plans. "Actually the funds of the SC, ST, BC and Kapu corporations were spent for the Amma Vodi scheme," he said.