The Central government has said that the off-budget borrowings by the Andhra Pradesh government will be considered as State government loans. Andhra Pradesh government’s off-budget borrowings stand at ₹79,815 crore and the excess over the borrowings by the State government will be adjusted in the subsequent financial years, it has said.
Giving a reply to a question raised by TDP MP K. Ravindra Kumar in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that Andhra Pradesh government issued guarantees of ₹22,366.08 crore during financial year 2021-22 and ₹57,449.55 crore during financial year 2022-23.
There were instances of borrowings by certain State Public Sector Units, Special Purpose vehicles (SPVs) and other equivalent instruments, where principal and/or interest were to be serviced out of the State Budgets and/or by assignment of taxes/cess or any other State’s revenue.
Considering the effect of bypassing the net borrowing ceiling (NBC) of the States by such borrowings, It was communicated to the States in March 2022 that such borrowings would be considered as borrowings made by the State government for the purpose of issuing the consent under Article 293(3) of the Constitution of India, the Union Minister said.
Answering another question raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, the Union minister said that the adjustments for the over-borrowings by States during the previous years, if any, are made in the borrowing space of subsequent years. The over borrowings by Andhra Pradesh during the financial year 2021-22 were ₹22,465.07 crore and over-borrowing of the previous years adjusted from the current borrowing space of the financial year 2021-22 was ₹8,465.07 crore, he said.
Mr. Pankaj Chaudhary said that the Central government released ₹10,460.87 crore towards Revenue Deficit Grant for the financial year 2014-15 on May 19, 2023 following a request by the State government. Also, an amount of ₹14,970.09 crore was released for Polavaram Irrigation Project, he added.
