AP No.1 State In Country: Check Where It Is!

Andhra Pradesh state has been reportedly ranked number one state in the country. But no, it’s not for any good reason. It’s rather for the wrong reason. It is in debts. As per the CAG reports, Andhra Pradesh stood number one in debts. The state took loans to the tune of Rs 49,263.34 Crore from April to September 2022.

In the budget FY 22-23, the state proposed to take loans of Rs 48,724.12 Crore for the whole financial year. Whereas within six months, the state surpassed the total year’s proposed loans. This is startling. Bihar stood second in the debts whereas it took Rs 30,407.14 Crore loans till Sep 22.

The difference between Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, which came as No.1 and No.2 respectively in debts, is huge and nowhere close. West Bengal that stood No.3 in debts took loans of Rs 26,972 Crore which is almost half of AP’s loans. The difference is huge. This is enough to understand how AP become debt-laden state. Only AP and Bihar are the two states that have consumed total debts proposed in their budget for year and surpassed the debts.

Financial experts have been ruing over AP’s financial status and the manner in which the state is accumulating loans in a staggering way. Despite several red flags being raised by the economists, the state government is unfazed, unperturbed. Rajasthan is at Number 4 as it took loans to the tune of Rs 22,678.14 Crore till Sep 22. Telangana stood 5 as it made debts upto Rs 21,173.23 Crore. Followed by Kerala (Rs 17,602.40 Cr debts), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 15,490.55 Cr), Madhya Pradesh (Rs14,305.78 Cr), Hariyana (Rs 12,682.25 Cr) and Punjab (Rs 11,464.98 Cr).

The least in the list are Gujarat and Karnataka which took debts of Rs 1549.61 Crore and Rs 1685.58 Crore debts respectively. Overall, AP earned the bad reputation of being number uno in the debts accumulated within six months of the FY 22-23. In the name of delivering freebies and social welfare schemes, the state’s economy is going haywire. The moot question is whether the people of the state take notice of it? Will the Centre intervene?