Fadnavis Defends Maharashtra’s Debt

Mumbai:Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday rejected the Opposition’s allegations of a rising debt burden, saying the focus should be on how borrowed funds are utilised for development rather than the size of the loans. He maintained that the state has kept its debt under control while investing heavily in infrastructure and welfare schemes.

Replying to a two-day debate on the state budget in the Assembly, Mr Fadnavis also asserted that Maharashtra is on track to become India’s first one-trillion-dollar state economy by 2029 and could surpass the economies of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates within the next two to three years if the current growth rate continues.

During the discussion on Tuesday, senior NCP (SP) legislator Jayant Patil had argued that the state’s debt has risen sharply over the past decade — from around Rs 4 lakh crore to more than Rs 11 lakh crore. He questioned how Maharashtra could achieve the target of becoming a trillion-dollar economy when the growth in per capita income has not kept pace.

Responding to the criticism, Mr Fadnavis said that if Maharashtra were an independent country, it would rank as the world’s 30th-largest economy. “Maharashtra has already surpassed economies such as Austria, Thailand, Norway, Vietnam and Bangladesh. If we sustain this growth rate, we will overtake the economies of the UAE and Singapore in the next two to three years,” he claimed.

Presenting data to defend the government’s financial management, the chief minister said the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has expanded significantly over the past decade. According to him, the GSDP stood at Rs 16 lakh crore in 2013-14 and has now risen to Rs 51 lakh crore. “The state’s economy has expanded more than threefold in the last decade. When the GSDP was about Rs 16 lakh crore in 2013-14, the state’s debt stood at roughly Rs 3 lakh crore. At present, he said, the GSDP has grown to Rs 51 lakh crore while the total debt is around Rs 9.32 lakh crore,” he said.

Mr. Fadnavis added that Maharashtra’s debt-to-GSDP ratio stands at 18.2 per cent, which he described as a sign of a stable fiscal position compared with several other states.

Citing comparative figures, Mr Fadnavis said states such as Punjab (46 per cent), Rajasthan (36.8 per cent), Bihar (32 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (39 per cent) and West Bengal (38 per cent) have significantly higher debt-to-GSDP ratios. Among southern states, he said, the ratios of Telangana (23.08 per cent), Kerala (36 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (33 per cent) are also higher than Maharashtra’s. “Only Odisha (13.8 per cent) and Gujarat (15.3 per cent) have lower debt-to-GSDP ratios than Maharashtra,” he said.

The chief minister also rejected allegations of disparity in the allocation of funds among parties in the ruling alliance. Referring to the previous government led by Maha Vikas Aghadi, he said that when it was in power in 2022, the undivided Shiv Sena received 16 per cent of the budgetary allocation, while the Indian National Congress received 26 per cent and the Nationalist Congress Party got 57 per cent.

Mr Fadnavis further said that Maharashtra’s nominal growth rate has been around 14 per cent since 2022. If the state sustains this momentum, he added, it would help achieve the broader target of building a $5-trillion economy by 2047. “Maharashtra will be the first state in the country to become a one-trillion-dollar economy,” he said.