Chandrababu Govt on Borrowing Spree: AP Debt Hits ₹2.09 Lakh Crore in 16 Months

The ruling TDP alliance continued to escalate the State’s debt, raising another ₹5,000 crore on Tuesday (September 2). The Chandrababu Naidu government mobilised the funds through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) via an auction of securities. With this latest borrowing, the total debt under the TDP government over the past 16 months has surged to ₹2,09,000 crore.

The development has reinforced concerns raised by the Opposition YSRCP. Political opponents, including YSRCP President and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, have accused the Chandrababu Naidu government of pushing the State into a debt trap.

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Jagan highlighted that his government, over five years from 2019 to 2024, had added ₹3.32 lakh crore in liabilities across categories such as public debt, public account obligations, and PSU debt (both guaranteed and non-guaranteed). By contrast, he alleged, the TDP-JSP government has already borrowed ₹1.86 lakh crore in just 14 months — equivalent to 56% of the total borrowing during the entire five-year tenure of the previous YSRCP government.

Pointing out that revenue growth had slowed under the TDP while debt was mounting at an alarming pace, YS Jagan advised Chandrababu Naidu to reconsider his governance model, warning that it was fostering rampant corruption at all levels.

The YSRCP President also demanded that the TDP government clarify how the borrowed funds were being utilised. He questioned why the ruling alliance was accumulating massive debt while failing to implement the schemes it had promised in the lead-up to elections.