Ahead of the 15th finance commission's visit to the state, West Bengal has raised a grim financial situation of the state even as the Mamata Banerjee government is claiming that it has been making a huge turnaround of the economy in the last seven years of its rule.
A team, headed by N.K. Singh, chairman of the finance commission, along with secretary Arvind Mehta and members like Shaktikanta Das, Dr Anoop Singh, Dr Ashok Lahiri and Dr Ramesh Chand would visit West Bengal from July 16 to July 18 to assess the economic situation of the state.
A government release said though the state is making a fast progress socially, it is moving further backward economically.
"The state faces challenges like huge debt liabilities, high interest payments obligations, historical low base of capital expenditure, limited revenue raising capacity due to large informal economy and sectoral composition," said the statement issued by the finance department.
The state has also accepted the fact that it has a high debt-GSDP ratio and low (probably one of the lowest) tax-revenue-GSDP ratio.
"West Bengal has consistently had the high outstanding debt over the period of financial year 2001 to 2017. West Bengal's ratio of development expenditure to GSDP and capital outlay to GSDP has been one of the lowest among the General Category States (GCS)," the statement admitted.
The total debt today stands at almost Rs 3 lakh crore. This is for the first time the state has done such a bold admission.
"We accepted that it is probably done to make the commission understand the real problem of the state so that it should do justice to West Bengal in its recommendation," said a senior official of the government.
Besides Chief Minister Banerjee, Singh would also meet Finance Minister Amit Mitra and other officials. A power point presentation would also be done to give the “true” picture of the state to the commission.
The statement said, "As per 'Swachh Survekshan 2018' conducted by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, West Bengal is home to 18 of the 25 dirtiest cities in the country. With regard to the State’s commitment towards SDG 1, still 19.98% of the total population is still below the Poverty line. Having the second highest population density after Bihar, this really poses a worrisome picture."
The team would be sent to some of the panchayats and urban local bodies of the state to show how the government is spending for the social sector in a huge way.
Meanwhile the BJP has lambasted the government over the release.
"Through out the year they give advertisement to local media showing the 'great resurgence' of West Bengal. Now just before the real tests by the finance commission, they have to come out with true picture," said Biswapriya Roychowdhury, state vice president of the BJP.