Guwahati: Manipur’s fiscal position has changed significantly since 2022-23, with the state’s outstanding liabilities continuing to climb, market borrowings emerging as the main driver of internal debt and the cost of servicing the debt rising faster than the debt itself.According to govt figures, market borrowing has steadily tightened its grip on Manipur’s internal debt, rising every year since 2021-22 and accounting for nearly 95% of internal debt by 2025-26, up from about 84% five years earlier.The figures placed before the assembly on Thursday by chief minister Y Khemchand, who also holds the finance portfolio, show that the state’s debt burden has risen nearly 54% between 2021-22 and 2025-26, but the cost of carrying that debt has risen even faster, with overall interest payments up 71% and interest on internal debt alone reaching 90%.Even more significantly, interest on internal debt accounted for about 90% of the state’s total interest bill in 2025-26.The liability growth is particularly visible after 2022-23. In 2023-24 it moderated to 10% and remained around 10.5% in 2024-25 before accelerating to 13% in 2025-26, the highest annual increase since 2021-22.Another major shift has been in loans and advances from the centre, which increased more than sixfold over the five-year period. This, together with rising market borrowing, contributed substantially to the expansion of the state’s overall liabilities, while public account liabilities remained virtually unchanged.While market borrowings have expanded, making them the principal engine of the rise in internal debt, Ways and Means Advances from RBI and special securities issued to National Small Savings Fund declined, while loans from financial institutions more than halved. The pattern indicates a growing dependence on market-based borrowing to meet the state’s financing requirements.The pressure is set to continue. For 2026-27, govt has made a budgetary provision for debt servicing that is 6.3% higher than the revised interest liability for 2025-26. The higher allocation suggests that servicing the accumulated debt will remain a significant recurring commitment for the state.Overall, the figures point to a post-2022-23 fiscal trajectory marked by rising liabilities, greater reliance on market borrowing and a disproportionately faster increase in interest costs.While the assembly reply does not establish a direct causal link between the debt increase and the violence that began in May 2023, the data clearly show that the state’s debt burden has continued to expand through the period.But the state’s debt appears to reflect a combination of increased financing requirements, greater dependence on market borrowing and a sharp expansion in central loans, against the backdrop of the prolonged security crisis and the state’s continuing relief and rehabilitation commitments.
