Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s per capita loan burden has gone up more than three times during the BJD government (2000-2019). According to official data, state’s per capita loan burden in 1999-2000 was Rs 5,000, which has now reached Rs 18,189.
The total debt burden of the state has crossed Rs 84,000 crore. The state has raised Rs 4,000 crore from open market so far in the current financial year to repay existing loans and create infrastructure facilities, sources said.
The debt burden of state is increasing by at least Rs 10,000 crore with passage of each year. The overall debt burden of the state may touch Rs 1.06 lakh crore by end of financial year 2019-20.
Briefing media persons after passing of supplementary budget in Assembly, Finance Secretary AKK Meena had said the state government has estimated to borrow about Rs 23,584 crore from various sources during the current fiscal year. With this borrowing, the total debt burden on the state may touch Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
The estimated borrowing amount (Rs 1.06 lakh crore) is 19.7 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) against the permissible limit of 25 per cent, he had said.
While the gross borrowing of the state will be Rs 23,584 crore, the state will repay loan amounting to Rs 4,707 crore. As a result, the net borrowing will be about Rs 18,877 crore.
The GSDP growth (at constant prices) is also not encouraging in comparison with neghibouring states excluding Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The GSDP growth of Odisha during 2018-19 was 8.26 per cent while the growth of Andhra Pradesh was 11.02 per cent and that of Telangana and West Bengal were 10.50 per cent and 12.58 per cent respectively.
However, the annual growth rate of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh during past financial year was 6.99 per cent and 6.08 per cent. The all India GDP growth rate was only 6.8 per cent.
State’s GSDP (at current price) by end of financial year 2018-19 was Rs 4,85,376.16 crore, which is likely to be around Rs 5.40 lakh crore by the end of current financial year, as per an estimate by the Finance department.
Likewise, state’s fiscal deficit by the end of 2019-20 financial year will be 3.49 per cent of GSDP, the source said.
