Hyderabad: Telangana remains among the five major States with lowest outstanding liabilities in the country, with around Rs 3.66 lakh crore at the end of March 2023. This is in complete contradiction to allegations being levelled by Opposition parties, especially union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy, who recently alleged that the State’s outstanding liabilities including borrowings of various State-owned corporations, were over Rs 8 lakh crore.

As per latest data furnished by the Centre based on Reserve Bank of India reports, Telangana’s total outstanding liabilities including loans availed by State-owned corporations and public sector undertakings, will be around Rs 5.17 lakh crore. In the last five years, the outstanding liabilities stood at Rs 1.9 lakh crore in March 2019, which jumped to Rs 2.71 lakh crore in March 2021 following the Covid-19 induced economic crisis, and then to Rs 3.66 lakh crore by the end of March 2023.

Earlier in February this year, the Centre informed the Parliament that loans availed by State-owned corporations and PSU from commercial banks were pegged at about Rs 1.31 lakh crore, while those taken from NABARD were around Rs.19,431 crore till February 2023.

Comparatively, several other major States, especially those ruled by the BJP, have huge outstanding liabilities. Further, all the States in south India have higher outstanding liabilities than Telangana. Tamil Nadu has the highest outstanding liabilities amounting to Rs 7.53 lakh crore by March 2023. This is followed by Uttar Pradesh with Rs 7.1 lakh crore, Maharashtra with Rs 6.8 lakh crore, West Bengal with Rs 6.08 lakh crore, Rajasthan with Rs 5.37 lakh crore, Karnataka with Rs 5.35 lakh crore, Andhra Pradesh with Rs 4.42 lakh crore, Gujarat with Rs 4.23 lakh crore, Kerala with Rs 3.9 lakh crore and Madhya Pradesh with Rs 3.78 lakh crore.

However, Opposition parties have been alleging that the actual debts of the State are much more than numbers furnished in the State budget. In February this year, the Centre itself had pegged the total debt of the Telangana government and State PSUs at Rs 4.33 lakh crore. As per the latest data, Telangana’s outstanding borrowings would be around Rs 5.17 lakh crore. But BJP State leaders including Kishan Reddy claimed a couple of weeks ago that the State’s debts had mounted to Rs 8 lakh crore, which is in complete contrast with the data released by the union Finance Ministry and the RBI.