WB demands Rs 2.55-trn debt relief package from 14th Fin Comm

The debt-burdened West Bengal government today placed a proposal before the 14th Finance Commission demanding Rs 2,55,000 crore for five years (2015-20) to improve the state's physical and social infrastructure and various development works.
Briefing on the state government's extensive meeting with the five-member Commission headed by its Chairman Y V Reddy, state finance minister Amit Mitra told reporters the state government had urged the Commission to create a Special Purpose Vehicle with a corpus of Rs 1,00,000 crore to help meet critical gaps in infrastructure sub-sectors.
This corpus of Rs 1,00,000 crore should preferably be disbursed in equal annual installments of Rs 20,000 crore over five years, Mitra said.

Apart from this, state specific grant of Rs 1,55,000 crore has also been sought by the state government for consideration during 2015-20 to boost various development programmes under its 41 departments, he said.
The state government also urged the Commission to write off the central loan of Rs 14,339 crore (administered by the Ministry of Finance) which would likely to be outstanding till March 31, 2015, the minister said.
"We also sought the Centre's intervention for rescheduling the 10-year State Development Loan (SDL) to a longer period of 15 to 20 years with a three year interest moratorium," Mitra said.

Demand has also been made by the state government for a Special Purpose Grant of Rs 51,000 crore for servicing the stock of National Small Scale Fund (NSSF) loans outstanding as on March 31, 2013 during the 2015-20 period, he said.