Assam’s Debts Surged in BJP’s Tenure as per RBI Data: Akhil Gogoi Produces Chart

The latest release of RBI (Reserve Bank of India)’s ‘Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2023-24’ revealed some dismayed numbers for Assam, especially in interest payments of Government of Assam.

Opposition MLA Akhil Gogoi has highlighted the issue with questioning Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Gogoi criticized the state government for taking debt. Gogoi carved out charts depicting the payment of interest by government of Assam and total outstanding liabilities of Assam. These two parameters indicate the gravity of debts that the state is mired in.

The first chart depicts the state of interest payment of Assam government during 2001-2016. Notably, this was during the tenure of Tarun Gogoi as the Assam CM.

It reveals that during those 15 years, the total interest paid by Assam government was 26,369 crores. On the other hand, the interest payment surged to 42,061 crore rupees in the past 8 years during BJP’s tenure. Of this 8 years, during Sarbananda Sonowal’s tenure (2016-21) the interest paid were 19,651 crore rupees.

In Himanta Biswa Sarma’s government in past three and half years, the interest paid swelled to 22,410 crore rupees. This is depicted in the chart below as produced by Akhil Gogoi.

The total Outstanding Liabilities of Assam since 1947-2016 were 41,964 crore rupees. This amount bulgeoned to 47,745 only in five years (2016-2021) during Sarbananda Sonowal’s tenure.

The debt of Assam during Himanta Biswa Sarma’s tenure of just three and half years swelled to 61,191 crore rupees.

To sum up, the total amount of Assam’s debts in 69 years were 41,964 crore rupees and during 8 years of BJP government in past 8 years starting from 2016 till date, it rests at a swelling 1,08,936 crore rupees.

The present status of Assam’s debts till 31^st march, 2024 is 1,50,900 crore rupees.