Asim Dasgupta slams centre for denying coal royalty to state

The outgoing finance minister of West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta today claimed that the debt position of the state was better than other states and put the blame on the Centre for the economic ills which allegedly has been denying coal royalty amounting to about Rs 5,000 crore to the state.

“A section of the media is projecting West Bengal as a state with highest debt burden. Here I would like to point out that Uttar Pradesh has the highest loan burden of Rs 2.21 lakh crore and for Maharastra it is Rs 2.08 lakh crore. West Bengal's debt burden on March 31 of this year stands at Rs 1.86 lakh crore. The centre has a debt burden of Rs 38 lakh crore,” Dasgupta said.

 

According to him, the higher tax revenue has kept the accumulated borrowings Rs 6,000 crore less than the previously estimated level of Rs 1.92 crore. The revised revenue deficit stands at 3.1 per cent lower than the previously estimated 5.4 per cent. Debt to GSDP ratio stands at 40.4 per cent as against 41.9 per cent. He credited the introduction of electronic returns and electronic cross checking in VAT (value added tax) collection for higher tax revenue.

Blaming the the central government for its partisan behaviour, he said, “West Bengal is the only state which is not getting the coal royalty amounting to 5,000 crore. For a long time we are asking for it, but no decision has been taken on payment of coal royalty.”

He also noted that state's development and planning expenditure which was at Rs 35,588 crore in 2009-10, has been estimated at 40,711 crore for the current fiscal.

However, Dasgupta emphasized on the need for a financial package from the state to revive the state's financial condition.“How much the new state government will spend on developmental works, will depend on the kind of central package it gets and when the state manages to get the coal royalty,” Dasgupta said.