Kolkata: The West Bengal govt added yet another feather to its crown by topping the list of states that showed progress in debt repayment as compared to the rest of the states in the country. As per the recently published report of Delhi's National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), the debt to GSDP ratio came down in six states after 2015-`16 and West Bengal stood at number one position in this respect.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly raised the issue of the huge debt burden in the past, blaming the previous Left Front regime for it. Now that the debt burden has come down significantly in West Bengal, the CM has expressed her satisfaction with the state's performance.
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The NIPFP, under the Union Finance Ministry, has released the report for this year's budget review for 18 major states. The report indicates that six states have considerably reduced their debt to GDP ratio for a period of four years from 2015-16. With its debt to GDP ratio dropping from 33.87% to 30.88%, West Bengal emerged as the most successful on this list.
According to sources in Nabanna, the state secretariat, the West Bengal state has got an increased income through stamp duty due to the modernization of the tax collection system. It helped in improving financial performance. But Covid created hurdles and sluggishness of the economy had also affected the state revenue during pre-Corona days.
However, due to the initiatives of the state government, the situation is slowly becoming normal, the sources said. According to the state's budget documents, 19.72% of the revenue excluding debt in the current financial year will be required to make interest payments. A major portion of the revenue is going towards debt servicing.
