Amid the three main considerations of debt, income and expenditure administration, West Bengal Minister of State for Finance (unbiased cost) Chandrima Bhattacharya will current the state funds for the monetary 12 months 2025-26 within the state Meeting on Wednesday.
As per figures of the state finance division, the whole amassed debt for West Bengal as of March 31, 2025, is slated to rise to Rs 6,93,231.66 crore, which is considerably greater than the determine of Rs 6,30,783.50 as of March 31, 2024.
By the way, on the finish of the monetary 12 months 2010-11, the final monetary 12 months beneath the earlier Left Entrance regime, the whole amassed debt was barely over Rs 1.90 lakh crore.
Economists really feel that the excessive amassed debt displays the mix of two parallel elements: skyrocketing income expenditures and restricted avenues of the state’s personal tax income technology. With out balancing these two elements, efficient debt administration is just about unattainable.
Even the lapses in debt administration by the West Bengal authorities have been highlighted within the newest NITI Aayog report titled Fiscal Well being Index: 2025′, particularly with regards to proportion of curiosity funds of the whole income receipts.
As per the report, the place the monetary 12 months 2022-23 has been primarily taken because the fiscal beneath evaluate, though West Bengal’s debt as a proportion of gross state home product (GSDP) has declined from 40.7 per cent in 2010-11 (the final monetary 12 months beneath the earlier Left Entrance regime) to 35.7 per cent in 2018-19, the true explanation for concern for the state authorities on this rely is the curiosity fee on the accrued debt.
“Curiosity funds account for 20.47 per cent of Income Receipts within the present 12 months, constraining the power of the state to allocate funds for improvement,” the report learn.
The second space of concern is the restricted avenues of the state’s personal tax income, which is overwhelmingly depending on the state excise part.
Whereas the projected state’s personal tax income development as of March 31, 2025, over March 31, 2024, was pegged at simply 9 per cent, the corresponding development within the state excise part alone as of the identical interval was projected at as excessive as 16 per cent.
State excise is simply one of many 12 elements of the state’s personal tax income column. Economists really feel that the over-dependence on simply certainly one of 12 elements of the state’s personal tax income is under no circumstances an indication of wholesome economics.
This issue has additionally been highlighted within the newest NITI Aayog report on this rely. As per the report, whereas West Bengal’s tax income was the key supply of earnings for the state authorities primarily attributable to assortment beneath SGST and therefore grew at an annual fee of 6.6 per cent over the previous 5 years, the state’s non-tax income has witnessed a decline during the last 5 years.
On the similar time, the report added, West Bengal’s reliance on grants-in-aid as a proportion of income receipts has elevated from 17.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 19.6 per cent in 2022-23.
The third and ultimate space of concern is expenditure administration or reasonably guaranteeing high quality expenditure by the state authorities. As per the NITI Aayog report, West Bengal’s spending on bodily infrastructure as a proportion of the whole expenditure has diminished from 5.3 per cent in 2018-19 to three per cent in 2022-23 which is decrease than the nationwide common.
Equality pathetic is the image of capital expenditure as a proportion of complete expenditure, which as per the stated report, has diminished from 12.2 per cent in 2018-19 to eight.3 per cent in 2022-23 and is once more decrease than the nationwide common.
Though the proportion beneath the top of social expenditure as a proportion of complete expenditure had been comparatively greater in West Bengal at 28.2 per cent throughout the fiscal beneath evaluate, the determine is once more decrease than the nationwide common.
Within the stated report, the fiscal well being of a complete of 18 Indian states has been reviewed and West Bengal has ranked sixteenth amongst these 18 states.
