It went down to Rs 35,875 crore by March 2008 from Rs 37,249 crore by the end of March 2007.
" We have achieved a major success in debt management and the debt stock of the state declined for the first time in 2007-08", State Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said.
It was possible due to swapping of high cost debt, pre-payment of some debt and discharging of the state government guarantee through One Time Settlement (OTS) for the state PSUs and co-operatives, he added.
The policy of the state government has been to reduce the net borrowing on year to year basis and to reduce the interest burden.
This policy is being pursued through pre-payment of high cost market borrowing and swapping the high cost loans. It has paid well and the state achieved a decline in the outstanding debt for the first time.
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The state swapped debts amounting to Rs 3294.39 crore between 2002-03 and 2007-08. While loans amounting to Rs 475.56 crore were swapped in 2002-03, it increased to Rs 863.79 crore in 2003-04.
Debt swapping further increased to Rs 1205.27 crore in 2004-05 and there was no swapping in 2005-06. During 2006-07, Rs 394.61 crore loan were swapped and it was followed by another swapping of Rs 356.16 crore loan in 2007-08 .
Ghadai said, as percentage of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) the outstanding debt stock of the state declined in 2007-08 compared to the previous fiscal. While the debt-GSDP ratio was 40.87 per cent in 2006-07, it declined to 34.73 per cent by the end of 2007-08, Ghadai added.
The total outstanding debt of Orissa was Rs 18,100 crore by the end of 1999-2000 increased to Rs 37,249 crore by March 2007. It was projected to increase to Rs 38,368 crore by March 2008.Ghadai said, due to prudent debt management, the state has been able to get an interest relief of Rs 182.48 crore between 2002-03 and 2007-08.