Hyderabad: Accusing the Congress govt of spreading misinformation on state govt’s borrowings during the BRS rule, former finance minister Harish Rao said the BRS govt borrowed only Rs 4.17 lakh crore including govt -guaranteed loans repayable by the state during its nine and half year’s rule and affirmed that he would stand by those figures. He also recalled publicly challenging the Congress govt to an open debate on the issue in the assembly.Harish Rao who wrote an open letter to minister Jupally Krishna Rao over the borrowings on Friday in response to the letter by the minister and refuted the Congress allegations and sent videos and documentary evidence to the minister on WhatsApp.“The BRS govt’s total borrowings stood at ₹4.17 lakh crore over nine-and-a-half years. I stand by the figures I presented in the assembly. There were discrepancies in the state govt’s own debt figures, according to RBI data and statements made by CM Revanth Reddy in the assembly. Stop misleading the people of Telangana with false propaganda on state borrowings. Let facts prevail over political rhetoric,” Harish Rao said in his letter.In the letter, the ex-minister stated that the CM and several Congress ministers have repeatedly made misleading claims regarding the debt accumulated during the BRS govt’s tenure despite the facts having been explained on several occasions.Referring to minister Jupally Krishna Rao’s latest letter, Harish Rao said that the minister claimed the Congress govt had borrowed ₹1,77,058 crore between December 2023 and June 2026. However, according to the RBI, the Congress govt’s borrowings had reached ₹1,86,067 crore as of 30 June 2026.He further said the CM’s own statement in the Telangana legislative assembly on March 18, 2026, in which the CM stated that the state govt’s FRBM borrowings and other liabilities together amounted to ₹3,47,294 crore.The BRS leader asserted that unlike the Congress govt, the BRS had consistently maintained the same figures and had never altered its stand on the state’s borrowings. He alleged that the Congress leadership was frequently changing debt figures to suit its political narrative.He said according to BRS calculations, the Congress govt had already raised approximately ₹4.5 lakh crore through various borrowing mechanisms since assuming office.Harish Rao in his letter informed minister Jupally Krishna Rao that he had forwarded three sets of supporting material through WhatsApp: the video of his assembly speech explaining the BRS govt’s borrowings, the video of CM Revanth Reddy’s assembly statement on the Congress govt’s borrowings, and the RBI’s official data on state debt. He advised him to refrain from making misleading statements regarding Telangana’s financial position in the future.ends/ends/
