Total debt of Andhra Pradesh has increased 32.84 per cent in the last two financial years at ₹3.56 lakh crore, according to Krishna Duvvuri, Special Secretary to Chief Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs

In a note on State borrowings released on Wednesday, the official said during 2019-20 the State was also impacted by the cyclical slowdown.

“The State was expected to receive ₹34,833 crore as its share in Central taxes; however, what was actually received was only ₹28,242 crore. Further, the State had a fall in its own revenues as well,’’ he said.

During 2020- 21, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic had the “most damaging impact” on the State finances, he said.

According to Duvvuri, Andhra Pradesh lost ₹7,780 crore on account of State’s share in Central taxes and ₹7,000 crore on account of own revenues. In addition, it incurred ₹8,000 crore expenditure on Covid-19 control measures.

“If the loss on account of the total economic impact were to be taken into consideration, the loss would be in many more thousands of crores. Despite the huge fiscal disability, the present government believed that, during these devastating times of loss of livelihoods, the only way to protect the people from utter distress is through the channel of direct benefit transfer(DBT),’’ he said.

During these times, debt increase is a ‘natural’ phenomenon across the globe, he added.

The official also alleged that a “misinformation campaign” was being attempted to create widespread concern among the RBI, Central government, banks and financial institutions, parliament and public on the “crisis” in State finances without taking facts into account.

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