Hyderabad, March 2: The Congress party has ridiculed the claims made by IT Minister K. Tarakarama Rao of Telangana registering an increase by 130% in the GSDP and 125% in the Per Capita Income and alleged that a factually incorrect report with distorted data was indirectly planted in leading newspapers in view of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s visit to New Delhi.
Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, in a media statement on Wednesday said that the Minister KTR shared a news clipping to make the false claim of growth in GSDP and PCI. Ideally, the minister should’ve shared the original report of the Union Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation if he truly believed that there was some truth in those claims. “TRS Govt got habitual of manipulating the budget figures to make fall claims of growth. In the Governor’s Address to Telangana Legislature on 14th March 2021, the TRS Govt claimed that the GSDP has increased by 114.71% in the last six years. Now the growth figure has been raised to 130%/. It will not be surprising if Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao claims that the GSDP has increased by 500% and Per Capita Income by 1,000% because he has no ability to differentiate between reality and illusion,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) and the 15th Finance Commission have clearly pointed out the serious auditing errors committed by the Telangana Government in the budget figures. They have accused the State Govt of inflating figures to show high revenues. Even the loans and borrowings were shown as State’s revenue. Therefore, he said that the present claim made by Minister KTR, even if it was based on the statistics of the Union Ministry of Statistics, was not reliable as it is based on manipulated data.
“TRS Govt claimed that Telangana’s Per Capita Income has increased from Rs. 1,24,104 in 2014 to Rs. 2,78,833 in 2021 registering a whopping increase by Rs.154,729 in the last seven years. He said this figure was too imaginative due to various factors. In a population of nearly 3.84 Crore, nearly 87.57 lakh families or nearly 2.86 crore people are beneficiaries of PDS rice. The income criteria to get a ration card is Rs. 1.5 lakh in rural areas and Rs. 2 lakh in Urban. Therefore, none of these 2.86 crore people are having an annual income of Rs. 2,78,833. Further, there are 39,36,521 Aasra Pensioners of various categories with each surviving on Rs. 2,000 monthly pension given by the State Government. Almost 19-20 lakh qualified youth are registered with the Telangana State Public Service Commission and another 22-25 Lakh youth are jobless. Therefore, the pensioners and jobless youth are not earning Rs. 2,78,833 per year. If we exclude these three categories of people, then it is impossible for the rest of the adult population to earn so much to take the State’s Per Capita Income to Rs. 2,78,333. This clearly means that the PCI figures are exaggerated and false,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that the audited revenue receipts of Telangana, including borrowings, from 2014-15 to 2019-20 were Rs. 620,501 Crore. If we add another Rs. 2 Lakh crore for the financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, the overall income/receipts do not exceed Rs. 8.5 Lakh Crore. According to the latest report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Telangana, as on today, has an Outstanding Liability of Rs. 312,191.30 Crore and Outstanding Guarantees of Rs. 105,006.70 Crore. Overall, Telangana State is having debts of Rs. 417,198 Crore taken from various agencies on huge interest rates. Therefore, Telangana’s debt has increased by more than four times in the last seven years, he said.
The Congress leader said that the TRS Govt never adopted a realistic approach towards the economy. He said CM KCR always believed in hype and misled the people by using inflated figures to highlight Telangana as a strong economy. Consequently, he said nearly 20% of Telangana’s revenues were being spent on paying huge interest rates and repayment. He accused the TRS Govt of mismanaging the tax payers’ money to make political gains.
“CM KCR or his son and minister KTR never clarified on the remarks made by the CAG and 15th Finance Commission on the auditing errors. They shamelessly justify huge borrowings without considering the fact taxpayers and their future generations would’ve to repay those loans and interest with their hard earned money. The fabricated ‘All Is Well’ approach by TRS Govt has completely ruined the economy of Telangana,” he alleged.
Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party would continue to expose the false claims being made by KCR Govt with regard to the State’s economy. He said a serious financial crisis was staring at Telangana and the situation would turn ugly if immediately corrective measures were not taken. He said that the Congress party, in consultation with financial experts, would conduct department-wise analysis and come up with the real statistics to enlighten the people regarding the real economic situation prevailing in Telangana State.
