Internal debt increased to more than 55% of GDP in ten years, the government told who was responsible
The pressure of external debt may have reduced during the last 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, but the burden of internal debt has increased. During the last 10 years, the country’s internal debt has increased so much that the figure has now crossed 55 percent of GDP.
Now the country’s internal debt has become this much
Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary gave information about the debt figures on the country in response to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday. He said that the figure of internal debt on the country has increased during the last 10 years and now it has exceeded 55 percent of GDP. According to the data, the country had an internal debt equal to 48.8 percent of GDP in 2013-14. Now this figure has increased to 55.5 percent of GDP in 2023-24.
Questions were asked on debt in Lok Sabha
Manish Tiwari, MP of the main opposition party Congress, had raised questions in the Lok Sabha about the debt situation on the country. He had asked how much India’s internal and external debt has increased in the last 10 years. Along with that, he also wanted to know from the government where the government has spent the money taken as loan.
Internal debt increased due to COVID-19
The Minister of State for Finance further said in his reply that the COVID-19 epidemic is mainly responsible for the increase in the internal debt of the Central Government as a percentage of GDP. According to the government, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the internal debt had increased to 58.3 percent of GDP in 2020-21, which was equal to 46.4 percent of GDP in 2018-19 before the epidemic started.
The government brought this much reduction after the epidemic
The government says that the emphasis on fiscal consolidation has brought rapid improvement on the debt front. The figure which had reached 58.3 percent of GDP in 2020-21, came down to 55.5 percent of GDP in the last financial year. The government said that it has rapidly reduced debt in the years after Covid. Regarding expenditure, the government said that the resources raised through debt were mainly used in development, social welfare etc.
