BHOPAL: The loan of the state has crossed the amount of the total Budget, as the debt of the state is around Rs 2.5 lakh crore and the Budget is 2.41 lakh crore. Finance experts say this is a bad omen for the state’s financial health. The state government is putting the state under a severe financial burden. In 2019-20, the debt of the state was around Rs 2 lakh crore and, in 2020-2021, the state had taken loans of more than Rs 52,000 crore. The state Budget for the year 2021-2022 is Rs 241,375 crore.
The present BJP government had taken loans of Rs 52,286 crore in FY 2020-21, which is almost double the loan taken by the Congress government in FY 2019-20. The Kamal Nath government had taken loans of Rs 23,430 crore in FY 2019-20. Now, the government has planned to take loans of Rs 49,463 in FY 2021-22. The government is also paying a huge amount on the interest of the loan amount. The government pays Rs 20,942 crore every year as interest.
Former finance minister Raghavji informed Free Press that this situation did not augur well for the financial health of the state. If the government failed to control the situation in future, it would cause serious problems in running the normal work of the government. He suggested that the state government bring down expenditure and increase income.
Former finance minister Tarun Bhanot alleged that the state government was betraying the people of the state. He alleged, “The government isn’t asking for its tax share from the Government of India and, as a result, the government is taking — and going to take — loans from the market. A huge amount of money is also paid as interest and that amount could have been well spent on the development of the state instead of paying interest.”
