Andhra Pradesh stood on top among all the States in the country in borrowing funds from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the first four months of this financial year, said TDP spokesman, Kommareddy Pattabhiram, on Sunday.
Talking to media persons at the party headquarters here, Pattabhiram said that from April this year the RBI has extended loans 17 times till now to various States through auction of State Government Security of which Andhra Pradesh utilised this opportunity to the maximum possible by participating in this auction for 14 times. In fact, Andhra Pradesh is the first State in the country to approach the RBI this fiscal, Pattabhi pointed out.
In this financial year, the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government has till now raised loans to the extent of Rs 29,500 cr thus taking the State to the top in borrowings, the TDP national spokesperson said. The neighbouring States of Karnataka and Odisha have not raised any loans in this fiscal, he stated.
Though Tamil Nadu has borrowed Rs 40,000 cr in this financial year, its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) Rs 28 lakh cr, Pattabhi said. Since any State can raise loans upto three per cent of the GSDP, Tamil Nadu can raise loans upto Rs 85,000 cr, he narrated. Going by this, Tamil nadu has till now not utilised even 50 per cent of the credit limit, Pattabhi explained.
However, Andhra Pradesh has already reached 97.4 per cent of the limit which the State borrowed from the RBI alone, Pattabhiram said. These statistics clearly indicate that Andhra Pradesh is in a worse situation than Tamil Nadu, he stated.
Giving the statistics of other States, Pattabhi said that bigger States in the country like Maharashtra has borrowed Rs 23,000 cr, Rajasthan 20,500 cr, Telangana Rs 17,000 cr, Punjab Rs 15,500 cr, Kerala Rs 12,500 cr, Uttar Pradesh Rs 9,500 cr, West Bengal Rs 6,500 cr, Gujarat 5,500 cr and the backward State of Bihar raised Rs 4,000 cr in this fiscal till now.
Jagan Mohan Reddy has created a record of sorts by becoming the richest Chief Minister of the country after resorting to large-scale corruption and by borrowing huge amounts of funds, Pattabhiram remarked. Why only Andhra Pradesh is badly in need of borrowing funds unlike any other State and why only the State is knocking at the RBI door much before other States, he asked.
The only reply for all these issues is the largescale corruption of Jagan Mohan Reddy who is borrowing funds and diverting them to his own coffers through backdoor, Pattabhi remarked. Observing that not even a single rupee is being spent for the development of the State and thus the roads are in such a bad condition while irrigation has taken a back seat, Pattabhiram said and felt that the people have already realised the facts and are ready to teach a lesson to Jagan when the time comes.