BJP-led Haryana government, which had accused previous Congress government of its "growing reliance" on public debt, today projected its outstanding debt at Rs 98,843 crore next fiscal, about 20 per cent higher from revised estimates of current fiscal.
In its first budget presented here in Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Manohar Lal Khattar led government has estimated state debt liability at Rs 98,843 crore for the next fiscal compared to revised estimates of Rs 81,836 crore for 2014-15, as per the budget documents.
The state government has proposed fresh borrowings of Rs 17,019 crore for next fiscal as against borrowings of Rs 13,951 crore in the current fiscal, says the 'Budget at a Glance' section.
Repayment of debt has been pegged at Rs 10,035.51 crore for next fiscal.
Debt as a percentage of GSDP ratio has been proposed at 18.90 per cent for next fiscal, up from 18.11 per cent in 2014-15 (RE), as per the documents.
Notably, the BJP led Haryana government in a 'White Paper on State Finance' for the period 2004-05 till 2013-14 had accused the previous government of its "growing reliance" on public debt as a major source of financing government's expenditure, saying that tax revenues were not able to finance state's entire expenditure.
The opposition party Congress in Haryana today took on the state government for "burgeoning" debt.
"They (BJP) used to say that we had left huge debt. When we left the state government, the debt was Rs 71,000 crore which had now gone up by Rs 26,000 crore," former Haryana Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged.
Despite Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, who presented the budget, claiming to bring down non-plan expenditure, salary and pension are set to swallow 43.89 per cent of state's revenue receipts in 2015-16.
Salary and pension bills has been projected to go up to Rs 22,961 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs 19,505 crore in 2014-15 (RE), as per the budget documents.
Interest payments has also been projected to jump to Rs 8,564 crore in next fiscal, up from Rs 7,196 crore in 2014-15 (revised estimates).
