Kolkata: West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asking her government to file a report to him detailing how Rs 1.17 lakh crore of central funds allotted to the state in the 2023-24 fiscal under various schemes were utilised, a well-placed source in the Raj Bhavan said. Bose wrote the letter after he was informed that the state government had not placed several Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the assembly, violating the constitutional obligation, he said.
"The West Bengal government has been allotted Rs 1.17 lakh crore of central funds in the financial year 2023-24. There are allegations of gross misuse of those funds... The fiscal situation of West Bengal is confronting multiple fiscal risks and public financial management issues," the source told PTI, quoting the letter. In his communication, Bose also highlighted some of the issues such as fiscal deficit which grew from about Rs 33,500 crore in 2018-19 to around Rs 49,000 crore in 2022-23 while the GSDP-debt ratio rose from 35.69 per cent to over 37 per cent during the period.
Bose also said that a significant portion of public debt receipts was used by the state government for debt repayment from 2021-22 to 2022-23."The West Bengal government has also benefitted hugely from successive Finance Commission awards. As per the Fifteenth Finance Commission Award, the state government has been recommended to receive a revenue deficit grant of Rs 40,115 crore from 2021-22 to 2024-25. This grant is as high as 13.62 per cent of the total revenue deficit grant recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission for the states.