West Bengal govt breached loan limit with Reserve Bank, says BJP

Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal, today claimed that the state government has “breached its borrowing limit” under the Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) Act by making a loan request of ₹10,000 crore with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Taking to Twitter, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP MLA from Nandigram urged the Union Finance Ministry to advise the West Bengal government to generate internal revenues by modifying its land policy.

Slamming Adhikari, Minister of State for Finance, Chandrima Bhattacharya, said that the “worried” legislator should take steps to ensure that the BJP-led central government cleared the dues it owed West Bengal.

“Govt of WB has raised a loan request to RBI for an amount of ₹ 10,000 crore. Unfortunately, WB has already breached its borrowing limit under the Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) Act. It’s also alarming that Bengal’s debt burden is approximately ₹ 6 lakh crore,” Suvendu Adhikari tweeted.

“Instead @FinMinIndia should advise the State of WB to increase internal revenues by modifying land policy and creating a congenial environment for setting up industries and drawing investment which would also revive the economy and create employment and help reduce the burden of Debt,” he added.

In a sharp retort, Bhattacharya said that the state was entitled to open-market borrowing under FRBM Act and the Leader of the Opposition should know that a Bill was been passed in the Assembly pertaining to West Bengal’s borrowing capacity.

“I don’t remember if the Leader of the Opposition was present in the House during the discussion. He could have aired his views back then. He should have checked facts before tweeting,” the minister told PTI.

She also said that West Bengal’s public debt now stands at 34.23 per cent of GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) and West Bengal presently ranks among the frontline states in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth due to prudent fiscal management despite “several adversities”.

“If he (Suvendu Adhikari) takes the initiative to facilitate the clearance of West Bengal’s mounting dues from the centre, there won’t be any need to make a loan request to RBI,” she said.

The minister had presented a ₹ 3.21-lakh crore budget for the 2022-23 fiscal on March 11 in the Assembly, where the West Bengal government proposed to raise public debt to the tune of ₹ 1,14,958 crore.

Bhattacharya had pegged the estimated outstanding debt of the state till March 2023 at 5,86,438.05 crore, while tabling the budget.

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