Gandhinagar, Feb 28 According to Gujarat government's own projections, the state public debt will touch Rs. 3.72 lakh crores by the year 2022-23.
According to the state government's documents, the current status of state's public debt for ensuing year of 2020-21, as per the budget estimate is Rs. 2,96,268 crores. By the next year, it is projected to be Rs 3,34,989 crores. The projections are based on the rate of 13.32% growth as per the projections of the 14th Finance Commission on advanced estimates of GSDP for 2019-20. The state's public debt will be Rs. 3,71,989 crores by the year 2022-23.
Even though the state government might be claiming to be borrowing while keeping the cap of public debt to GSDP ratio to 27.1 per cent, the borrowings are constantly on the rise and seemingly no intention are evident by the state government to decrease it.
The public borrowings consist of a whopping over 20% of the total receipts, while the payment of public debt seems to be hovering around 8% over a couple of years.
In the year 2018-19, Gujarat borrowed Rs 36,801 crores which was 20.14% of the total revenue estimates of Rs. 1,82,728.16 crores but it paid only Rs. 15,434 crore that is only 8.4% of the total budget.
Similarly, in 2019-20 the state borrowings were Rs. 42,001 crores, that is 20.75% of the total budget of Rs. 2,02,371.71 crores, while it paid only 8.20% of the total budget expenditure, the payment of public debt being Rs. 16,590.95 crores.
For the ensuing year 2020-21, the state will borrow Rs. 46,501 crore which will be 21.66% of the total budget of Rs. 2,14,738.47 crore, but continuing the trend it will pay only Rs. 17,884.70 crore which will be 8.33% of the total budget size.
"Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his developmental path in the state when the total debt of Gujarat was only thirteen thousand crore. Over the period of so-called development, the debt of the state has gone sky high. The outstanding liability of the state government by next year will be around 3.5 lakh crores. The BJP is indebting the state with more and more burden each year, whereas the public is not getting any benefits by the so-called development for which the government is claiming to borrow," Paresh Dhanani, Leader of Opposition Party (LOP) in the Gujarat Assembly, told .
(Amit Cowper can be contacted at amit.cowper@gmail.com)
( With inputs from IANS )