Just how empty are West Bengal?s coffers? With the Trinamool Congress set to step into Writers? Building after 34 years of Left rule, the bureaucracy is doing the math on the liabilities of the new government. If the state wants a special package ? which Amit Mitra, the likely finance minister told FE the new government will need ? these numbers will be crucial.
On Monday, chief secretary Samar Ghosh asked all departments to compile their liabilities and submit the papers to CM Bachhawat, principal secretary, finance, who will put them together and present to the incoming government.
Work has started early so the new government does not have to waste a single day to understand the state of finances, a finance department official said. He pointed out that the entire liability could be well above the state?s current R2-lakh-crore debt burden. This is because all departments have been banned from releasing funds except salaries since October 2010.
Since then, the finance department has not released funds to any of the departments, including the Public Works Development, Public Health Engineering, Housing, Irrigation, Municipal Affairs and Urban Development. Several departments which were executing projects through contractors have been unable to settle the bills.
Contractors? bills alone would be close to R3,000 crore until March, after which they were not allowed to submit fresh bills. The figures on bills yet to be submitted have not been calculated; so, that is an unknown liability, the official said.
A circular dated April 6, 2011, (of which FE has a copy) had allowed only those bills to be passed relating to salaries, wages, stipends, electricity and telephone bills.
In fact, the state government has channelised every central grant of 2010-11 for paying salaries. For example, of the total approved cost of R138.49 crore for projects under Jawaharlal Nehru New Urban Renewal Mission, the Centre?s assistance amounted to R48.47 crore.
Of this, the Centre for 2010-2011 released R12.11 crore, which instead of going to the nodal agency, Kolkata Municipal Development Authority (KMDA), has been used for paying salaries.
The Centre will not release the next tranche unless the state government shows the funds have been properly utilised, the official said, adding that this has been done with almost all the grants released in 2010-2011. To add to Mamata Banerjee’s woes, the new government?s market borrowing would also be restricted since the state has already raised R5,200 crore of its total R14,000 crore borrowing plan for 2011-2012, he added.