Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre of depriving the state of “close to Rs 1 lakh crore” under various heads this fiscal.
After presenting the state budget in the Assembly on Monday, the last full budget before the state election in 2021, Banerjee said the twin blows — high interest payout and curtailment in central fund transfer — had undermined the state’s development agenda.
While giving out the details, state finance minister Amit Mitra said Rs 11,213 crore has been reduced on account of devolution to the state, while grants worth Rs 37,973 crore have been denied this fiscal. Moreover, Bengal is not getting GST compensation of Rs 1,300 crore.
“All put together, Rs 50,486 crore is being denied to the state of Bengal,” Mitra said, adding that it is over and above a claim of Rs 38,000 crore that the CM had raised with the Prime Minister when the two met on January 11 in Calcutta.
“If you put two together, as there are many other heads, the amount will be close to about Rs 1 lakh crore,” Banerjee said in the post budget press meet.
Reacting to the allegations of the “nearly Rs 1 lakh crore” of kendriyo bonchona (deprivation by the Centre) levelled by Mamata and Mitra, the BJP accused them of filling the budget with lies and fiction to mislead the people in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
“The Rs 50,000 crore cited by the finance minister, besides the additional Rs 38,000 crore cited by the chief minister, and the absurd final claim of Rs 1 lakh crore of supposed kendriyo bonchona is not substantiated – prima facie — in any of the budget documents or in the statements issued by either,” said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.
Mitra later clarified that the numbers had been gleaned from the Union budget. “Devolution to Bengal has been reduced in the revised estimate of the Union budget to Rs 48,048 crore from the budget estimate of Rs 59,260 crore,” Mitra added. However, he did not provide details on the curtailment in grants.
Earlier in the day, while kicking off a debate on the Union budget in the Rajya Sabha, former finance minister P. Chidambaram talked about how the Centre was cheating states out of the money that was due to them.
He said: “The states are also being cheated… In the beginning of the current year, you promised to transfer Rs 8,09,133 crore, the budget estimate. At the end of the year, you will transfer only Rs 6,56,046 crore. There is a cut of Rs 1,53,000 crore. Divide it among 30 states. On an average, every state will lose Rs 5,000 crore. Ask your own chief ministers, if every state loses, on an average, Rs 5,000 crore, how does the state finance minister balance his budget? And, next year, you have promised to give Rs 7.84 lakh crore. I don’t believe your numbers!”
Indebtedness
Banerjee said her government had presented a “pro-people budget” every year since coming to power in 2011. However, the diminishing central fund transfers to the state had been destroying the state’s finances.
Outstanding debt will go up to Rs 4,74,831 crore in 2020-21 from the revised estimate of Rs 4,31,786 crore in 2019-20, rising by 10 per cent. The state will spend Rs 51,047 crore in loan and interest payments alone. It will make a fresh market borrowing Rs 48,734 crore as loan.
Mitra, however, countered the criticism by pointing out that state’s GSDP to debt ratio was going down every year. The state budget has projected a deficit of Rs 6 crore in 2020-21.
