Finance Commission team to visit West Bengal from July 16 to 18
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, JULY 15, 2018: THE Fifteenth Finance Commission will be visiting the state of West Bengal from July 16-18, 2018. The Commission will have meetings with Chief Minister, Ministers and other officials of the state. Detailed presentations will be made on the finances of the State Government. On July 17, before the formal presentations by the State govt officials, Commission will make a courtesy call on Mamata Banerjee. Commission will also visit IT Park in New Town, Kolkata, Madhyamgram Municipality and Kemia Khamarpara Gram Panchayat to understand their working and related issues. Ahead of the visit, Commission understood various aspects of its finances from Accountant General of West Bengal in New Delhi.
In the memorandum submitted to the Commission, West Bengal has mentioned numerous achievements in socio-economic areas. Government has launched numerous schemes for Social Sector development. State has achieved remarkable improvement in Institutional Deliveries from 65% in 2010 to 96% in 2018. MMR and IMR of West Bengal is considerably better than National Average. Total Fertility Rate in the state is 1.6 which is lowest in India. Total 12 states have achieved the replacement level of fertility (2.1). West Bengal stands 1st in terms of enrolment of students and disbursement of scholarships. State has been awarded Krishi Karman award 5 times in a row showing Exceptional Production in Pulses, Rice and Oilseed. West Bengal is ranked 10th amongst the achievers in Ease of Doing Business rankings released recently. Statistical data related to GSDP and related presentations made to the Finance Commission were based on the constant prices of 2004-05. Recent discussion between West Bengal govt and CSSO would make available recent data in due course of time.
However, the State faces numerous challenges in its developmental stride. The fiscal picture in West Bengal is characterised by a high Debt-GSDP ratio and a low own tax revenue-GSDP ratio. West Bengal has consistently had the high outstanding debt over the period FY 2000-01 to 2017-18(BE). The present government has contracted high debt from the previous govt. which has put onerous burden for servicing debt liability on it. It has greatly circumscribed other developmental expenditure. Restructuring of legacy debt is structural issue which would need multipronged and coherent action spread over a longer period. West Bengal’s low ratio of development expenditure to GSDP and Capital Outlay to GSDP need careful consideration. On the brighter side, Social Sector Expenditure to GSDP has been higher than the all state average.
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