Haryana Government has availed a huge sum of Rs 70,126 crore as loans from various public sector banks since April 1, 2014.

The State Government has availed its largest loan of Rs 15,602 crore from Punjab National Bank from April 1, 2014 to November 30, 2021, according to the data tabled in Parliament in reply to a question on Monday.

The loans were sanctioned by the PSBs to various companies and corporations owned by the Haryana Government.

The BJP Government came to power in Haryana in October 2014 while the coalition government of BJP-JJP took over the reins in October 2019.

As per the data, the Indian Bank has sanctioned a total loan of Rs 13,262 crore to the State Government from April 2014 to November 2021. Similarly, the Bank of Baroda has sanctioned a loan of Rs 7796 crore, Bank of India sanctioned Rs 4300 crore, Canara Bank sanctioned a sum of Rs 5438 crore, Central Bank of India sanctioned Rs 2050 crore to Haryana Government.

During the same time period, Rs 9800 crore was sanctioned by the State Bank of India, Rs 5450 crore by UCO Bank, Rs 5528 crore sanctioned by Union Bank of India, Rs 600 crore by Indian Overseas Bank and Rs 300 crore by Punjab and Sind Bank.

“As per the provisions of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 21A of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934, the RBI by agreement with any State Government, may undertake the issue of any new loans by the latter.

In accordance with the same, RBI acts as banker to all State Governments except Sikkim. Thus, new loans are issued by the RBI (and not by banks) in its capacity as banker to the State Government,” it was stated in the reply.

Notably, Haryana’s debt liability is projected at Rs 2,29,976 crore as on March 2022 from Rs 1,99,823 crore as on March 2021, constituting 25.92 per cent of the GSDP. The State Government has come under sharp criticism from the opposition parties over burgeoning debt liability in Haryana.

The state’s total debt was Rs 70,931 crore in 2014-15, when the BJP assumed power in the state for the first time. Preparing for budget estimates 2022-23, the State Government had recently directed its Departments to keep the need to economize in mind while preparing the budget estimates.

The government had issued a series of guidelines to keep a tight rein on expenditure in the next budget while stating that the economy of Haryana faced setback on account of the COVID-19 lockdown induced stagnation.