State finance minister Amit Mitra on Monday rejected Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s statement that the Centre had given `8,000 crores package to the Mamata Banerjee government.
“The state government has not received a relief package or grant. Mr Singhvi is clearly ill-informed. Possibly he was referring to the `8,760 crores backward areas grant fund (BRGF) which the Centre had agreed to allocate but then under this head the Centre had already given a grant to Bihar way back in 2005-06. Let me make it clear in no uncertain term, till date we have not received a single paise from the Centre,” he added.
Mr Mitra claimed that the state government was paying `22,000 crores a year as loan-repayment against the debt of a staggering `2.03 lakh crores debt left behind by the Left Front government.
In a recent interview to three Bengali news channels, the chief minister had also claimed that the Centre was yet to give any financial assistance to West Bengal to tide over its financial crisis. On being asked for his comments, Mr Singhvi on Sunday had said: “The state has already been given `7,800 crores and whatever more needed to be done can be achieved by further discussion between the two parties.”
In a clear rebuttal to Mr Singhvi, Mr Mitra said: “They are project specific funds (worth `8,756 crores) and the project reports are lying with the Planning Commission. The commission will move them to the Union finance ministry which will release the funds eventually. To say this, was `8,000 crores given to Bengal is wrong. He is a good lawyer but he may not be well informed about finances. The debt during the Left rule is the key to the state’s financial crisis. Singhvi didn’t address or seem to understand this.”
Mr Mitra wished that the Centre considered a moratorium to help the state come out of the financial crisis. Earlier, the state government had sought a three year moratorium on the repayment of loan and interest from the Centre. However, the Centre did not agree to this proposal as it could not give such a favour to a single state in the federal structure.
[Meanwhile, PTI reported that the Congress insisted that the Centre has sanctioned `7,800 crore to the Bengal government, which has accused it of non-cooperation in extending financial assistance.
“Figures speak for themselves. I am repeating what I said in Kolkata yesterday that an amount of `7,800 crore was sanctioned by the Centre but am not sure as to what amount has been released or not released or whether the state government has utilized the funds so released,” Mr Singhvi told reporters in Delhi.]