(Tribune)
The mounting debt liability may be an election issue for political parties but the ground situation is really bad and more borrowing to meet the budget deficit is unavoidable as the debt burden, which rose from Rs 19,977 crore in 2007 to Rs 25,798 in 2012, made a quantum jump between 2012 and 2017 and stood at Rs 46,335 crore in December 2017.
The state government has pegged the interest payment in the budget at Rs 4,260 crore but the projected interest payment as per financial reforms and budget management is Rs 5,432.78 crore in 2021-22, indicating that the debt burden will go up further.The cost of subsidies will also go up from Rs 1,084.71 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 1,256.02 crore in 2021-22 while the outstanding government guarantees stood at Rs 4,508 crore and risk weighted amount was Rs 2,333 crore.
