Claim: A tweet by Indian National Congress (INC) spokesperson Jairam Ramesh claims that in 2 years Per Capita debt rose by Rs 90,000 and stands at Rs 4.8 lakh per person. Mr. Jairam Ramesh also claims that Indians are spending 25.7% of income to repay the debt.
Our examination found the claim to be FALSE.
How We Examined the Claim:
1. We examined RBI’s Financial Stability Report (June 2025) to verify the numbers claimed by Mr. Jairam Ramesh. Page 35 of the report states that debt per individual borrower has grown from Rs 3.9 lakh in March 2023, to Rs 4.8 lakh in March 2025. This is not per capita debt but debt per unique borrower. In other words, this amount shows the average debt outstanding amount only for those individuals who have taken loans. Note number 38 from the report clarifies this further.
2. We examined RBI’s Financial Stability Report (June 2025). We found that the figure of 25.7% mentioned in the claim, shows the total non-housing loan amount owed by an individual, as a share of disposable income. It does not show the amount Indians are repaying every year.
To give an example, Mr. X has taken an education loan of Rs 1 lakh with a repayment period of 5 years. In simple language, Mr. X will be repaying Rs 20000 every year and his current loan outstanding is Rs 1 lakh. Instead of saying Mr. X will pay Rs 20000 per year, Mr. Jairam Ramesh has claimed Mr. X will pay Rs 1 lakh per year.
Conclusion:
Mr. Jairam Ramesh seems to have misrepresented data from RBI’s Financial Stability Report (June 2025). He has portrayed debt outstanding per borrower as debt outstanding per person. This creates a false picture of average indebtedness of Indian society. He has also falsely claimed that Indians are repaying the total loan outstanding per year. In reality, a person only repays a fraction of the outstanding debt every year.
Therefore, the claims are False.
