The Karnataka government’s total debt has increased by a massive Rs. 24,768.84 crore in 2015-16, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
The report, tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, observed that the borrowing profile of the State in recent years showed an increasing trend towards relying more on open market borrowings. This is visible with the fact that the outstanding market borrowings at the end of 2015-16 stood at 48.02 per cent of the Gross Public Debt, it pointed out.
The report stated that the total borrowing in 2015-16 was inclusive of the off-budget borrowing of Rs. 7,698.69 crore. This took the total public debt and other liabilities of the State, by the end of March 2015, to Rs. 1,75,623.08 crore, which is 24.91 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), noted the compilation. This is within the norms, which mandates that outstanding liabilities should not exceed 25 per cent of GSDP.
According to the report, the revenue deficit of the State for 2015-16 has been maintained at 19,168.73 crore, which is 2.6 per cent of GSDP, as against the norms that the revenue deficit should be below 3 per cent of GSDP.
