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Former Bengal Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta has termed this year’s State Budget ‘confusing’.
“The Budget leaves several questions unanswered. I hope it would be discussed threadbare in the Assembly. As long as the questions remained unanswered, I would call it full of confusion,” Dasgupta said at a press conference here on Tuesday. He also expressed his concern over the State’s growing debt and financial mismanagement. “So far, this Government has borrowed an additional amount of Rs 34,000 crore. The trend suggests that the figure may go up to Rs 55,000 crore”, he said.
“Growth in market borrowing is alarming; it has gone up to over over Rs 18,000 crore this fiscal from around Rs 9,500 crore last fiscal. It is likely to go up to Rs 25,000 crore (in 2013-14) as the trend suggests”, Dasgupta added.
West Bengal’s debt servicing costs its exchequer Rs 25,000 crore.
The State’s current total borrowing stands at Rs 2.26 lakh crore.
Revised estimate
Regarding the revised revenue estimates of Rs 32,000 crore for 2012-13, Dasgupta said, the Rs 1,250 crore garnered through entry tax was a redeeming feature. But he questioned whether the State Government has obtained Presidential approval on imposition of such a tax.
He also wondered about the veracity the growth figures – particularly regarding industrial growth. Dasgupta said the projections had been made based on doubtful numbers.
> jayanta.mallick@thehindu.co.in
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