The Mohan Yadav-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has initiated a process to take a loan of another Rs 2,000 crore – the first such initiative for the new government.
The state finance department has already issued notification to take the loan through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the amount is expected to become available to the government by December 27.
However, with the fresh loan, the debt burden of the state government will increase to over Rs 3.5 lakh crore – a figure substantially higher than the annual budget for 2023-24, which stands at over 3.14 lakh crore.
Since January this year, the state government has taken loans of around Rs 39,500 crore – of which about 25,000 crore was taken during the current financial year. Since the debt burden of the government stood at around 3.32 lakh crore on March 31, 2023, the current debts have gone well over Rs 3.5 lakh crore and by the end of the financial year 2023-24 is expected to touch the 3.85 lakh crore mark.
This means that the per person debt burden in the state that currently stands at Rs 47,000, will go to around Rs 50,000 by end of financial year. The debt burden has almost doubled in the past five years as at the end of financial year 2017-18, it stood at Rs 1.94 lakh crore.
Congress has attacked the government over the financial situation. Leader of opposition Umang Singhar said on social media platform X, “See the progress of the double engine government. (They have) put a debt of Rs 205 lakh crore on the country. The state debt has increased to Rs 3.50 lakh crore. Loan on every citizen of the country has gone up to Rs 1.40 lakh debt and that on every citizen of the state has increased to Rs 47,000. The debt figure is skyrocketing. The level of poverty in the country is increasing. The BJP sycophants should pay attention to these figures too.”
Ladli Behna takes up Rs 1,600 crore pm
Cash-based welfare schemes are making a huge dent on state finances with the Ladli Behna – the ambitious scheme of Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led previous government alone taking up over Rs 1,600 crore per month. Under the scheme Rs 1,250 cash assistance per month is paid to around 1.31 crores women beneficiaries.
Under opposition attack over the future of the scheme, CM Mohan Yadav recently announced in the state assembly that none of the welfare schemes including the Ladli Behna will be discontinued. He said that the government has adequate funds for all such schemes.
Succor through central fund of Rs 5,727 crore
Meanwhile, a succor has come for the cash-strapped state government with the union finance ministry releasing an additional amount of Rs 5,727 crore to Madhya Pradesh on Friday.
Additional funds have been released to all the states, with the union ministry saying that the funds will help various social welfare measures and basic infrastructure development projects of the states in view of the upcoming festival season and New Year.
The funds were released even as the CM Yadav was in Delhi, where he met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.
Later, Yadav posted his gratitude on social media platform X, saying “Moving forward rapidly on the path of development is the guarantee of respected
PM Narendra Modi ji. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the respected PM and union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for this important decision. Certainly, this decision will give a new impetus to all-embracing, inclusive and universal development in Madhya Pradesh and other states.”