Bengal will not implement fiscal management act: Minister

The West Bengal government will not implement the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA) as it was aimed at reducing welfare measures and was of no use in bringing down fiscal and revenue deficit, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said in the Assembly today.     

Replying to a debate in the Assembly on the West Bengal Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, he said the FRMBA was a constraint on welfare measures like recruitment of doctors and teachers.     

Pointing out that the Act mandates the government to bring down fiscal deficit to three per cent and reducing revenue deficit to zero, Dasgupta said these targets could have been achieved if the Centre had paid Rs 4,000 crore due to the state as relief from small savings and Rs 7,300 crore due from various royalties.    

The Centre should release the amounts without delay as the Supreme Court had ruled that the states could collect the cess and royalties, he said, adding that the state, however, was able to bring down its fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent.     

Dasgupta, who is the chairman of the Central committee on VAT, said while there were some initial misunderstandings about the VAT in the state, there were 2.4 lakh registered VAT assessees now.

An amount of Rs 4 crore were collected as one-time settlement from 791 assessees while 59 cases were pending with the Settlement Commission.     

In the current fiscal, VAT collection upto July had increased by 25 per cent and excise by 27 per cent, he said.