Jaipur : Rajasthan has been completely caught in the clutches of debt in the last three decades. Now every child in the state is born as a debtor. If the per capita debt is calculated, then every child born in the state has a debt of Rs 70,800.
More liberality in borrowing instead of economic liberalization
In fact, in the last 33 years, the state government has been more liberal in borrowing instead of economic liberalization. During this period, BJP has been in power 5 times and Congress 3 times. As soon as both the parties came to power, they blamed the previous government for the increasing debt and washed their hands off it. Be it the Congress or BJP government, no one has found a way to reduce the debt. As a result, the state now has a debt burden of 90 times more than in 1990. In 1989-90, the debt burden on the state was Rs 6,127 crore and the interest being paid was Rs 437 crore. The total debt burden is now estimated to have increased to Rs 5,79,781 crore.
It is not that the state governments took loans for long-term development or strengthening the economy. In fact, the financial situation is such that loans have to be taken even to meet the daily needs of the state. The previous Ashok Gehlot government took a loan of Rs 2 lakh 24 thousand 392 crores during its tenure. Out of this, only Rs 93 thousand 577 crores were spent on building permanent assets. About 60 percent of the loan was spent on meeting daily needs. That is, not enough attention was paid to the long-term development of the state and strengthening the economy. This was not the only weakness of the Gehlot government. A study of the budget documents of the last 33 years revealed that the same situation prevailed in the Vasundhara Raje government as well.
Vasundhara Government (14 July 2014)
The state has a mountain of debt burden. In March 2014, the total debt burden increased to 1 lakh 29 thousand 910 crore rupees. It is unfortunate that even after taking so much debt, it was not used in capital investment. We have to make the state prosperous by the year 2020, for this we pledge to take the economic growth rate to 12 percent and increase the per capita income by 10 percent every year. – Vasundhara Raje, Finance Minister
Gehlot Government (13 February 2019)
The BJP government implemented lucrative schemes for electoral gains without proper budget provision. This had an adverse effect on the financial situation. The Vasundhara government left a huge debt burden on the state. In the year 2018-19, debt and liabilities are estimated to increase by 138 percent to Rs 3 lakh 9 thousand 385 crores. Improving this situation of the state is a priority. -Ashok Gehlot, Finance Minister
Bhajanlal Sarkar (8 February 2024)
Due to the short-sighted thinking and wrong policies of the Gehlot government, a huge debt burden was inherited. The total debt burden on the state is estimated to be Rs 5 lakh 79 thousand 781 crores. Per capita debt was Rs 36 thousand 880 in the year 2017-18, which is now likely to be Rs 70 thousand 800. During the previous government, a loan of Rs 2 lakh 24 thousand 392 crore was taken, out of which Rs 93 thousand 577 crore was capital expenditure.
