State govt has over Rs 1.15 trillion outstanding liabilities: Assam FM

The total outstanding liabilities of the Assam government currently is over Rs 1.15 lakh crore, Finance Minister Ajanta Neog informed the state Assembly on Tuesday, while affirming that the debt to GSDP ratio of the state is within prescribed limits.

She also maintained that the government has been repaying debts as per schedule while it has become self-reliant in paying for its salary, pension and loan interest from its own resources.

Replying to a question by Independent legislator Akhil Gogoi, Neog said the total outstanding liabilities of the state as on March 31, 2023, is Rs 1,15,751.32 crore.

The amount was Rs 82,741.09 crore as on the same day in 2021, she added.

She maintained that the debt to GSDP ratio was at 23.47 per cent till 2022-23, which was within the permitted limit of 32 per cent as per the Assam Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

Claiming robust financial health of the state, Neog said, While the previous governments used loan amounts to pay salaries, we are using it for infrastructure building and precisely that is why we dream of being in the top five states of the country soon.

She said capital expenditure in the state has gone up from Rs 4,543 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 16,338 crore in 2022-23.

As data laid by the minister, total debt taken by the state government in 2016-17 was Rs 5649.45 crore, followed by Rs 10476.2 crore in 2017-18, Rs 14003.88 crore in 2018-19, Rs 16634.53 in 2019-20, Rs 19256.59 in 2020-21, Rs 17148.41 in 2021-22 and Rs 25902.16 in 2022-23.

The minister said total outstanding liabilities on March 31, 2016, was Rs 35,690.22 crore. The state government availed loans amounting to Rs 35,433 crore from 2001-02 to 2013014, while an amount of Rs 22,790 crore was repaid till 2022-23.

She added that the process to repay the loans on time was going on.

Expressing concern over growing debt, Gogoi said that even as states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have more debt burden, revenue from their own sources was multiple times more than Assam's earnings.

Congress MLA Bharat Chandra Narah also said that since the interest payment by the state cannot be more than 10 per cent of the total revenue received, the government must inform the House as to what the total interest payment and revenue received were in the year 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Neog replied that the latest data from January 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024 will be available at the end of 2023-24 fiscal.

She maintained that all loans were taken as per rules, adding that availing loans is not a bad thing as it is essential for infrastructure development.