India running with Rs 1.97 lakh crore debts, Minister says not a cause of concern

New Delhi: India is running with a debt burden of Rs 1,97,45,670 crore, which was told to be not a big concern in the Parliament provided the various debt consolidation measures taken.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman while replying to a question about the country's debt burden shared the figure which is 60 per cent of the GDP as per the provisional figures available for the year 2020-21.

The Minister said that the government is now focusing on reducing the fiscal deficit from 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2021-22 to below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26 as means of lightening the weight of the debt.

Apart from fiscal deficit reduction, the government is also trying debt consolidation through increasing buoyancy of tax revenues through improved compliance, increased receipts from monetisation of assets including Public Sector Enterprises and land are the additional steps involved to overcome the debt burden, said Nirmala Sitaraman.

She added that the present debt is not a concern that these measures coupled with adequate limits on the borrowings of state governments will help to ease the burden.