SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir’s public debt has reached 0.9 lakh crore in the 2024–25 budget estimates, placing it near the lower end of the national debt table in absolute terms but keeping its debt-to-GSDP ratio broadly in line with the national average.
Data tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday show that the Union Territory’s outstanding debt has risen from 0.6 lakh crore in 2020–21 to 0.7 lakh crore in both 2021–22 and 2022–23, climbing further to 0.8 lakh crore in 2023–24 and now touching 0.9 lakh crore. As a share of the Gross State Domestic Product, the debt stands at 33.6 per cent for 2024–25, marginally higher than the previous year’s 32.8 per cent but lower than the 36.1 per cent recorded in 2021–22.
In absolute terms, Jammu and Kashmir’s debt is far smaller than that of large states such as Uttar Pradesh at 8.6 lakh crore or Maharashtra at 8.1 lakh crore. However, its debt-to-GSDP ratio places it in the middle tier nationally — below heavily indebted states such as Punjab at 46.6 per cent and Arunachal Pradesh at 57 per cent, but above Gujarat at 17.9 per cent and Maharashtra at 19 per cent.
Economists note that the increase, though modest in percentage terms, reflects a combination of developmental expenditure and the fiscal pressures of sustaining public services in a region with unique administrative and security challenges.
At the national level, state government debt has risen from 61.6 lakh crore in 2020–21 to a budgeted 93.9 lakh crore in 2024–25. The combined debt of the Union and state governments now exceeds 279 lakh crore. The Centre’s own debt is estimated at 185.9 lakh crore this year, equal to 56.2 per cent of GDP, down from 61.4 per cent in 2020–21.
