Here Is YCP’s Answer To Purandeswari’s Allegations

Following BJP state president Daggubati Purandeswari’s allegations that the Andhra Pradesh is debt-ridden, the YCP government released the details of the loans the government had taken during the last four years. Purandeswari also demanded a White Paper on the loans drawn unofficially during the last four years.

BJP’s charges

She said that there was Rs 97,000 crore loan on the state by the time AP was formed. By March 31, 2019, which means at the end of TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu’s rule, it rose to Rs 3,62,375 crore. This takes the total debt drawn by the TDP government in five years to Rs 2,65,365 crore.

After the YCP government took charge, the debt rose to Rs 10,77,006 crore in 2023, which means it had drawn loans of Rs 7,14,631 crore, she informed.

In response, the YCP government presented its version of the figures.

By the time the state was bifurcated, AP had loans of Rs 1,32,079 crore which rose to Rs 3,31,054 crore (annual growth of 20.17%) by the time TDP was thrown out of power and by March 2023, it further rose to Rs 5,87,317 crore, at an annual growth of 16.13 per cent.

By the time the state was divided, the loans of the government-run corporations stood at Rs 1,53,346 crore, and the figure rose to Rs 4,12,288 crore (annual growth of 21.87 %), and they increased to 6,51,789 crore by March 2023.

The YCP government also claimed that the CAG report also declared that the loans drawn by it was much less than that taken during the TDP regime. At the same time, the CAG report also stated that the expenditure of the corpus was also high. During the TDP government’s rule, over Rs 76,139 crore was spent, which means an average of Rs 15,225 crore was expended every year while after YCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy took charge, over Rs 75,411 crore was spent during the last four years, which means an average of Rs 18,852 crore was expended during the last four years. These funds were spent on improving the society assets.

To Purandeswari’s allegations that the condition of roads was bad during the YCP rule, the ruling YCP said that while only Rs 3,169 crore was spent during the TDP rule, it had spent nearly Rs 4,493 crore during the last four years.

Responding to the BJP charges that even the government staff were not receiving their salaries on time, the YCP government presented a comparison of the salary bills of various states. The salary bill of Madhya Pradesh, being ruled by the BJP is Rs 23,997 crore (from April 2021-22 October) while that of Gujarat is at Rs 7,789 crore for the same period. The Andhra Pradesh salary bill for the same period stood at Rs 24,681crore.

In 2018-19, the government spent Rs 53,911 crore towards staff salaries and pensions and in 2020-21, it spent Rs 66,470 crore towards the staff salaries and pensions.

These apart, the YCP government claimed that it had cleared all the bills of the Genco and contractors left by Chandrababu Naidu’s government. The YCP leaders claimed that their government had deposited over Rs 2.20 lakh crore directly into the beneficiaries accounts, as part of various welfare schemes. The government did not stall disbursal of funds to any of the schemes even during the pandemic, when the entire world faced economic crisis, the YCP government added.