The Government of Andhra Pradesh is in the process of negotiating with the lending agencies for refinancing of the loans to be repaid by it.
This will bring the interest rates down, thereby giving the government some relief in clearing the debt that has piled up in the last five years, says Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Huge debt burden
Addressing the media at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Naidu said the government was bearing a huge burden of debt servicing, and it planned to have all the loans refinanced by the lenders so that it would be in a relatively easier position to discharge its repayment obligations.
He said that while repaying the debts and shoring up revenues, the government targeted to achieve a higher growth rate of 15% from the current 12.94% by 2046-47 and a per capita income of $42,000 by that year, by which time the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was projected to reach ₹347 lakh crore.
WhatsApp governance
The State aimed at becoming a $2.40 trillion economy by FY 2046-47, for which Swarna Andhra Vision had been unveiled, he said, and announced that he would be launching WhatApp governance on January 18 for better delivery of government-to-citizen services.
The GSDP growth at current prices for the FY 2024-25 was 12.94% as per the First Advance Estimates (FAE), which was a key metric that would form the basis of the upcoming Socio Economic Survey and full-fledged budget.
Mr. Naidu pointed out that the average GSDP growth rate fell from 13.50% in 2014-19 to 10.32% in 2019-24 due to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Government’s retrograde policies.
The average growth rate of the agriculture, industrial and services sectors were 16.60%, 11.90% and 11.90% respectively in 2014-19 (overall GSDP 13.50%) and 0.22%, 11.33% and 10.84% in 2019-24 (GSDP 10.32%). The FAE for 2024-25 pegged them at 15.86%, 6.71% and 11.70% (overall GSDP 12.94).
Further, he said the State’s GSDP in 2023-24 was ₹14,22,094 crore compared to Telangana’s ₹15,01,981 crore, Kerala’s ₹11,46,109 crore and ₹27,21,571 crore and ₹25,00,733 crore of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively.
The State’s share in national GDP was 4.81%, which was lower than those of Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, but appreciably higher than that of Kerala.
The FAE of Gross Value Added (GVA) of agriculture, industry and services sectors for 2024-25 was ₹5,19,485 crore, ₹3,41,331 crore and ₹6,11,390 crore respectively.
Population management
Mr. Naidu said he would bring the two-children norm for contesting the elections for the sake of “population management.” Andhra Pradesh’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) by the end of 2021 was 1.54, and it was expected to fall to 1.51 by 2026.
This was detrimental to the State’s interests as it would have an ageing population, which adversely affects the quality of human capital. The government would give the two-child rule legal sanctity as an important initiative to facilitate population growth, Mr. Naidu added.
Published - January 16, 2025 09:20 pm IST
