Bengal Governor Bose asks Mamata to furnish details of state's spending of Rs 1.17 lakh crore central funds

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asking her government to file a report to him detailing how Rs 1.17 lakh crore of central funds allotted to the state in the 2023-24 fiscal under various schemes were utilised, a well-placed source in the Raj Bhavan said.

Bose wrote the letter after he was informed that the state government has not placed several Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the assembly, violating the constitutional obligation, he said.

"The West Bengal government has been allotted Rs 1.17 lakh crore of central funds in financial year 2023-24. There are allegations of gross misuse of those funds... The fiscal situation of West Bengal is confronting multiple fiscal risks and public financial management issues," the source told PTI, quoting the letter.

In his communication, Bose also highlighted some of the issues such as fiscal deficit which grew from about Rs 33,500 crore in 2018-19 to around Rs 49,000 crore in 2022-23 while the GSDP-debt ratio rose from 35.69 per cent to over 37 per cent during the period.

Bose also said that a significant portion of public debt receipts was used by the state government for debt repayment from 2021-22 to 2022-23.

"The West Bengal government has also benefitted hugely from successive Finance Commission awards. As per the Fifteenth Finance Commission Award, the state government has been recommended to receive a revenue deficit grant of Rs 40,115 crore from 2021-22 to 2024-25. This grant is as high as 13.62 per cent of the total revenue deficit grant recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission for the states.

"In 2023-24, out of total revenue of Rs 2.13 lakh crore of West Bengal, central transfer alone was Rs 1.17 lakh crore constituting around 55 per cent of the total revenue of the state," the source said.

Reportedly, six of the CAG's audit reports on the West Bengal government had not yet been tabled in the assembly, he said.

The six reports pending for placement before the assembly are the Compliance Audit Report 2020-2021 (Report No. 2 of 2022), Audit Report 2020-2021 (Report No. 3 of 2022) 3), the State Finances Audit Report (SFAR) 2021-2022 (Report No. 1 of 2023), the Audit Report 2021-2022 (Report No. 2 of 2023), Performance & Compliance Audit Report 2021-2022 (Report No. 1 of 2024) and the State Finances Audit Report (SFAR) 2022-2023 (Report No. 2 of 2024), the source added.

In the letter, Bose referred to the provision in Article 151 of the Constitution of India under which audit reports of CAG, relating to the accounts of a state shall be submitted to the governor, who shall cause them to be laid before the assembly.

The rule also suggested that the state government needed to initiate action so that the CAG reports were tabled in the assembly, Bose mentioned.

The governor also urged upon the state government to ensure fiscal prudence, and transparency and placing the same before the cabinet, to issue a White Paper on the fiscal situation in the state.