The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has cried hoarse against the Centre changing the policy on implementing the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act with retrospective effect after approval of the budget by the State Assembly early this year with estimates on mobilisation of resources expenditure, and termed it discrimination against the State.
However, the Congress blamed both the TRS and Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre for forcing the State into a debt trap with total debt at ₹4,97,296 crore as per 2022-23 budget documents, including ₹3,29,988 crore borrowed under FRBM limits and another ₹1,67,308 crore guarantees given to different corporations or outside the FRBM limits.
During a short discussion on FRBM, Congress floor leader M. Bhatti Vikramarka said they had been cautioning the State government against indiscriminate borrowings for the last four to five years and highlighting the growing fiscal deficit every year. He sought to know how the government planned to handle the situation with cut in expected borrowings and what would be its impact on the ongoing projects.
Mr. Vikramarka alleged that the BJP government at the Centre did not club the direct (FRBM) borrowings and borrowing by corporations (guarantees) as recommended by the Finance Commission till it (Centre) had changed the mind early this year to club them to calculate the total debt. The guarantees were not shown as government debt in the past as the corporations would repay the debt with earnings.
However, there was no commercial activity with borrowings for Mission Bhagiratha, Kaleshwaram and other irrigation projects guaranteed by the State and it was the State that would repay that debt too, Mr. Vikramarka said.
Minister for Finance T. Harish Rao alleged that double standards of the Centre on FRBM was impacting the State’s progress. The Centre’s direct borrowings and guarantees were not being clubbed as it was doing with the State now.
The Centre’s denial of State its due share of funds including ₹6,268 crore grant recommended by the 15th Finance Commission, ₹5,374 crore State specific grant, ₹721 crore special grant, ₹171 crore for nutritious food recommended in the past, ₹495 crore amount central sponsored schemes given to AP by mistake, ₹817 crore dues to local bodies under 14th FC, power dues of ₹17,828 crore from A.P., ₹1,350 crore special assistance grant, ₹24,200 crore grant recommended to Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya, ₹33,712 crore shortfall due to devolution of 29% against 41% since 2014-15 and others would have prevented the State about ₹1 lakh crore borrowings, the Minister explained.
M. Raghunandan Rao of BJP, K.P. Vivekanand of TRS and Mohd Moazan Khan of AIMIM spoke as part of the short discussion.
