India's fiscal 'states'man

Asim Dasgupta, chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers, may not have achieved the objective of the Centre, of having a common market through a single goods and services tax (GST), but can be credited for finding a common ground with 35 states and Union territories.

While economists debate whether Dasgupta’s recent announcement of a three-tier GST is a success or setback, most would agree he has a very good track record.

As a bureaucrat in the union finance ministry pointed out, Value Added Tax (VAT) was Dasgupta’s biggest achievement. “Even a progressive United States could not implement VAT. Forget about VAT, even the states have different income tax rates.”

In his more than two-decade career as the finance minister of West Bengal, VAT would probably count as his biggest success. Of course, the rollout of GST could well be another feather in the cap for him as much as for the Centre.

Back home, however, his track record isn’t as good, to put it mildly. The precarious state of West Bengal’s financial health, the extent of which is known only to the finance minister, is best not discussed.

“We get to know about West Bengal’s financial health only when we are in Delhi,” pointed out a bureaucrat. That is to Dasgupta’s credit. No one dare refute this master of statistics or will face the danger of drowning in a deluge of numbers.

He’s not a particularly popular figure among industrialists in the state either. “The files don’t move,” points out a top industrialist. The Kolkata-based industrialist cited an interaction with Jyoti Basu, who was the chief minister of West Bengal then, which went like this: “Jyoti Basu told me, your project is great but your file has gone to Asim.”

But he still has a strong fan-following among his students from the economics department of Calcutta University. The feeling is mutual. Dasgupta remembers most of them by name.

Though relegated during the industrialisation drive of West Bengal under the stewardship of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Dasgupta has made a comeback as a key figure after the recent poll debacle.

A graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the CPI(M) believes that no one other than Dasgupta is competent enough to handle the finances of the state. In Jyoti Basu’s cabinet, he was the finance minister and the tradition continues. Old habits die hard.