Telangana Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Tuesday claimed that the Union government owes over Rs 1 lakh crore to the state in the form of pending funds, grants, and compensation.

He told the Assembly that the Centre owes it Rs 1,05,812 and if the pending funds are released, the state can clear one-third of its Rs 3.29 lakh crore debt.

If the Centre releases these funds, the state would not even be required to raise new debt, he said in his reply to the short discussion on “Central government dual policy in implementation of FRBM Act – Impact on state progress”

Harish Rao alleged that the Centre’s unilateral decisions and imposition of restrictions against the state to obtain loans under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limits was having an adverse impact on the state.

He dismissed the criticism by BJP on the state’s debts and claimed that unlike the Union government which obtained loans to repay its loans, the state government spent the borrowings on capital expenditure and created assets. He pointed out that the state took up irrigation projects like the Kaleshwaram project Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya and other programmes which created assets for the state.

He said that as per the Reserve Bank of India report, Telangana’s debt rank is 23rd in the country.

Harish Rao also rubbished the allegations by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other BJP leaders over the per capita debt on each citizen of the state.

He stated that while the Central debt resulted in the per capita debt of Rs 1,25,679 on every individual, Telangana’s debt amounted to Rs 94,272 per capita.

During her recent visit to Telangana, Sitharaman has claimed that every child born in Telangana carries a debt of Rs 1.25 lakh.

Harish Rao stated that Telangana’s debt to GSDP ratio at 23.5 per cent is much lower than the country’s ratio at 55 per cent.

He claimed that in the last eight years, Telangana assumed top position in terms of increase in state-owned-tax-revenue with 11.5 per cent growth. Odisha came second with 9.7 per cent, followed by Haryana with 9.2 per cent growth.

Telangana’s contribution to GDP also increased from 4 per cent to 4.9 per cent in the last eight years, despite having just 2.9 per cent of the nation’s population.

“Unlike the BJP government which waived off the corporate loans to benefit its friends, we distributed the State’s wealth among the poor,” he said.

Harish Rao reminded that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found fault with the Union government for obtaining off-budget loans which amounted to about Rs 6 lakh crore in the last five-six years.

He said if the BJP MLAs and MPs from the state succeed in getting the dues from the Centre, he would felicitate them.

The Finance Minister also slammed the Centre for adopting double standards in implementation of the FRBM Act by imposing restrictions on the states, but not practicing them itself.

He said the Centre took a unilateral decision to impose restrictions on the state’s borrowings without constituting the committee as per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission. The high-powered inter-governmental committee should comprise the Central and the State governments to review the borrowings.

He claimed that though Telangana was eligible to avail loans up to 4 per cent of its GSDP, it had let go 0.5 per cent of loans for the sake of farmers, after the Centre insisted on fixing smart meters to agricultural pump sets. The Union government also ignored the 15th Finance Commission’s recommendations to release Rs 6,268 crore to Telangana under various heads based on its performance.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to increase the tax share of states from 32 per cent to 42 per cent by GST implementation but by imposing more cess, the Centre has reduced the tax component to the state.

While the Central government was mobilising around 22.26 per cent of its revenue through cess and surcharges, the states are losing their revenue and ending up with only 29.6 per cent of total revenue earned by the Centre. Telangana has suffered revenue loss of Rs.33,712 crore, he said.

He remarked that the state would have received more revenues if Value Added Tax (VAT) would have continued.

He alleged that the Centre has also not released Rs 1,350 crore towards development of backward districts, and accused the BJP for destroying the federal spirit to achieve its motto of “weaker states, stronger centre”.

Telangana Health and Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Saturday said the state government will spend Rs 10,000 crore to improve public health services.

He said the aim of the state government was to provide the best healthcare services to the people at par with the corporate sector.

The Minister inaugurated a 100-bed intensive care unit at government-run Niloufer Hospital for children in Hyderabad.

This was the first programme attended by Harish Rao after taking over the medical and health portfolio three days ago.

Harish Rao said another 800 beds would be provided at Niloufer Hospital at a cost of Rs 33 crore. He said doctors and other staff for this would be recruited soon.

He lauded Hyderabad Software Entrepreneurs’ Association (HYSEA) for providing Rs 18 crore under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to improve infrastructure in government-run hospitals in the state.

The Minister said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao plans construction of four medical towers in four directions in Hyderabad to provide the best healthcare facilities to the poor.

Harish Rao said the government was also working with the aim to have a medical college in every district. He said when Telangana state was formed there were only five government medical colleges and the number has now gone up to 21. Nine more government hospitals will be functional from next year.

In June, the government had decided to focus on the public health sector. A cabinet sub-committee headed by Harish Rao was asked to prepare a report. The panel will review the situation in government hospitals, staff and other infrastructure facilities and make recommendations.

It was announced that the sub-committee with ministers Jagadeeshwar Reddy, Srinivas Yadav, VemulaPrashanth Reddy, Srinivas Goud, Sabita Indra Reddy, and Satyavathi Rathod as members will tour Kerala, Tamil Nadu where better medical treatment is given as well as Sri Lanka, to study the situation and submit a report.

Telangana Finance Minister T. Harish Rao on Monday slammed the BJP, saying during its rule, India’s economic growth has slumped to lower than Bangladesh.

Hitting back at Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and other BJP leaders for targeting the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government, he said India was lagging behind the neighbouring country in growth rate and per capita income.

“The Union Minister and other BJP leaders are making tall claims but the fact is that India’s growth rate has slumped to be lower than Bangladesh. This is your achievement,” Harish Rao said while addressing a news conference.

Citing World Bank figures, he said during 2019-20, Bangladesh’s growth rate was 8.1 per cent while India’s growth rate was mere 2.5 per cent.

He said India was also lagging in per capita income.

Making a power point presentation on Telangana’s growth during last six years, he said the state had emerged as a role model for other states and its growth rate was higher than the national average.

He pointed out that Telangana’s GSDP at current prices in 2020-21 was Rs 9,80,407 crore, an increase of 94 per cent from its 2014-15 value. Telangana achieved the third rank in the country in terms of the percentage increase in GSDP at current prices between 2014-15 and 2020-21.

He said in 2020-21, Telangana was the sixth highest contributor to the country’s GDP at current prices. “Between 2014-15 and 2020-21, Telangana achieved the third highest Average Annual Growth Rate of GSDP at current prices in the country. Since the state’s formation, growth in Telangana has consistently outpaced growth in the rest of the country. On an average, Telangana grew by 3.7 percentage points more than India did for the period post state formation,” he said.

Harish Rao said that Telangana’s GSDP at current prices increased by 93.8 per cent between 2014-15 and 2020-21, as against India’s increase of 58.4 per cent in the same period, and contributed approximately 5 per cent to India’s GDP, an increase of 1 percentage point since the state’s formation.

He said Telangana achieved an 11.7 per cent Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of GSDP at current prices from 2014-15 to 2020-21, compared to India’s 8.1 per cent during the same time span. On an average, Telangana grew by 3.7 percentage points more than India did for each of these years.

During Covid-19, while India experienced a negative rate of growth of GDP (-3 per cent) in 2020-21, Telangana’s growth rate was still positive (2.4 per cent), he said. In 2014-15 and 2015-16, despite experiencing drought conditions, Telangana achieved high rates of growth of GSDP, significantly better than that of the country as a whole.

In 2020-21, the per capita income, one of the strongest economic indicators of the well-being of a population, for Telangana (Rs 2,37,632) was 1.84 times that of the national PCI (Rs 1,28,829), he said, adding that the state ranked 3rd in this regard. Telangana surpassed 7 states in a span of 7 years, moving from 10th position to becoming the 3rd ranking state in terms of per capita income in 2020-21. Telangana achieved the highest average growth in per capita income amongst all Southern states, at 11.5 per cent, post 2014-15, he added.

“Telangana’s per capita income has doubled. What is Kishan Reddy’s reply to this,” he said while slamming the Union Minister for alleging that Telangana’s growth has suffered under the TRS.

The cabinet sub committee on resource mobilisation headed by finance minister Harish Rao and comprising of IT minister KT Rama Rao and other ministers on Tuesday recommended state government to increase registration value of lands and properties in Telangana.

The registration values in Telangana were last revised in Undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2013.

After bifurcation of state, Andhra Pradesh hiked registration values by seven times but Telangana government did not revise registration values even once.

Telangana government is currently facing severe financial crisis due to Covid and is exploring all the options to increase its earnings through sale of lands and increase in registration values etc.

TS government is all set to increase registration values of agriculture, non agriculture lands, commercial and residential properties.

The cabinet sub committee submitted report to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The new rates are expected to come into effect from August 1.

With this, property registrations in Telangana is all set to get costlier.

Telangana Finance Minister T. Harish Rao escaped unhurt when his convoy of vehicles met with an accident in Siddipet district on Sunday night.

Vehicles in the minister’s convoy collided with each other when the security vehicle leading the convoy had to apply sudden brakes to avoid hitting some wild pigs, police said

The incident occurred near Nagula Banda when the minister was returning to Hyderabad from Siddipet.

Harish Rao and his aides escaped unhurt. The cars in which the minister and his security guards were travelling suffered some damage in the collision.

The accident occurred when the driver of the pilot vehicle applied brakes as some wild pigs suddenly came on to the road.

Harish Rao reached Hyderabad in another car. On learning about the incident, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao called up the minister and enquired about his well-being.

Earlier in the day, Harish Rao, along with the Chief Minister, had attended an official programme in Siddipet.