Vijayawada: Former finance minister Buggana Rajendranath has termed the govt’s version on state finances as irresponsible public rhetoric and asked the leaders not to degrade the decorum of House by spreading such blatant and incoherent lies.
Speaking to the media here on Sunday, Buggana said that the figures given by the govt do not add up and the total loan amount cited by NDA coalition leaders varies from person to person. “The debts till 2024 (till the completion of YSRCP’s term in office) was shown in the budget as Rs 6.5 lakh crore. However, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and senior leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu claimed that it is over Rs 9.76 lakh crore. Finance minister Keshav mentioned another figure in the assembly. This is irresponsible political rhetoric as there is no concord among the three experienced leaders on the finances of the state,” charged Buggana.
He found fault with TDP leaders for reiterating false propaganda that there is a scam behind every scheme during YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule and added that the money under welfare schemes was disbursed directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries to maintain transparency.
He criticized the state govt for failing to fulfil the Super Six promises as it had given a meagre amount to the Deepam scheme which may just cover one free LPG cylinder against the promised three. “They have not made any specific allocations to Adabidda Nidhi, Talliki Vandanam, Anna Daatha Sukheebhava, pension, Yuva Galam or free bus for women schemes. In order to escape from their failures, Naidu and his team are depending on the false propaganda,” said Buggana.
He said that Naidu added corporation loans, public debts and others to show the escalated figure of debts at Rs 9.76 lakh crore, while Yanamala has made double entries of the corporation loans taken by civil supplies, power sector and RTC. He said that TDP leaders were depending on juggling of figures to spread false information and added that the YSRCP govt performed much better than the previous Naidu govt and improved the State’s share in the GDP.
He said that the rate of interest on borrowings were much higher during the previous TDP term than Jagan’s regime and losses of discoms came down between 2019-24, which shows financial discipline of YSRCP govt. “We could also bring more funds from the Centre to compensate the revenue deficit. The revenue receipts were at 6 per cent during the TDP’s tenure from 2014 to 2019 and it rose to 16.7 per cent during the YSRCP’s regime from 2019 to 2024,” he said.
