West Bengal's public finances among the weakest: Subbarao

"In the field of West Bengal's public finances, it is weaker than most states of the country. RBI recognises that," he told reporters after RBI's central board meeting here.

He said the rate at which the state makes borrowings from the market is higher by 10 to 15 basis points.

"In this case, the state is lagging behind," he said.

About the credit-deposit (CD) ratio of West Bengal, he said it would go from 63 per cent to 65 per cent by the end of the current fiscal.

"The banks operating out of the state are confident that the CD ratio of the state would touch 65 per cent this fiscal. For the next fiscal, the target will be 68 per cent," he said.

For districts where CD ratio was less than 40 per cent, the target set was to improve it by five per cent, Subbarao said.

He said West Bengal is also lagging behind in other areas as well.

Subbarao said the none of the districts in the state is among the 51 selected nationwide selected by the Centre for providing direct cash transfer from January, 2013.

"This is clearly an indication that the state is a laggard in providing direct cash transfer compared to other states where the method was introduced much earlier," he said.

About the mushroom growth of multi-level marketing companies in the state, he said RBI has written to the government to take stern action against them.

"The responsibility lies with the state government," he said.