By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 20, 2016 : Odisha, which for the past decade did not borrow much, is resorting to heavy borrowing to meet its expenses. Consequently, the debt burden of the State is expected to shoot up to a whopping Rs 64,991.83 crore by the end of 2016-17.

The debt burden on the State was Rs 48,586.65 crore by the end of 2015-16 and will be up by Rs 16,000 crore in this fiscal, official sources said. The State’s debt burden in 2014-15 was pegged at Rs 43,273.38 crore and the Government paid Rs 2810.27 crore on interest only. The loan burden was Rs 18,100 crore in 1999-2000, Rs 37,730 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 43,273.38 crore in 2014-15.

In the last fiscal, the State Government had raised a loan of Rs 7312.49 crore from the Centre, Rs 10,880.9 crore from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), Rs 7128.13 crore from the open market, Rs 6230.98 crore from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (NABARD), Rs 16937.86 crore from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Rs 55.57 crore from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and other sources, Rs 13.3 crore from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation (GIC), Rs 22.98 crore from National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and Rs 4.44 crore from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).

Nevertheless, the per capita debt burden of the State has considerably gone down during the last eight years while total borrowing has increased marginally. In 2007-08, the total borrowing was Rs 36,311.61 crore and the per capita debt was Rs 9,064. The total borrowing marginally increased to Rs 36,430.54 crore in the following year while the debt burden per head reduced to Rs 8,975.

Officials, however, claimed that steps are being taken to keep borrowing within the permissible limit. Loan with high interest rate are being repaid. Besides, the State has been exempted from paying Rs 1,909.5 crore towards loan repayment from the Centre for its fiscal accountability and successful implementation of Budget Management Act.