Hyderabad, Dec 9 (IANS) Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday claimed that the TDP-led coalition government in the state cooked the figures to deceive the people into believing that the State’s economy is booming.

The YSR Congress Party president reacted to the release of the advance estimates for the GSDP during the first half of the financial year 2025-26 by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

In a post on X, Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government prepared the figures under Chandrababu Naidu’s guidance ‘to deceive’.

He stated that while the government can cook up figures pertaining to advance estimates of GSDP, it cannot fudge state government accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The fiscal performance can be ascertained from the State accounts figures released by the CAG. These accounts are not prepared under the advice of Mr Chandrababu Naidu ,and they are indeed a compilation of the actual receipts and expenditure of the State Government, he said.

“The economic reality as conveyed by the accounts for the first half of this financial year released by the CAG is that the State is suffering from abysmally low growth in the State Government’s revenues, unprecedented levels of State Government borrowings, worryingly low capital expenditure, low levels of consumption and investment in the economy, and alarming levels of revenue and fiscal deficits. It is also apparent that the State Government revenues are being plundered owing to rampant corruption,” wrote the Chief Minister.

“When this is the factual position, the TDP alliance Government attempts to deceive the people into believing that the State’s economy is booming. I would like to remind Mr Chandrababu Naidu of the words of the great Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.

The YSRCP chief asked Chandrababu Naidu if the State’s economy is indeed flourishing, then why is the government facing this level of fiscal stress.

“If the GSDP growth during the 5 year period of your Government between 2014-19 was so commendable, then why is the State’s contribution to National GDP only 4.45 per cent as against the corresponding figure of 4.78 per cent during 2019-24? If the State’s economy did perform so admirably during the TDP regime 2014-19, then why has the State’s rank in per-capita income not improved by even one notch during your regime?,” asked Jagan Mohan Reddy.

–IANS

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