NEW DELHI: The feud between West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose and chief minister Mamata Banerjee does not appear to finish anytime quickly. Within the newest episode of Bose vs Banerjee, the previous wrote a letter to the chief minister in search of data concerning the utilization of Rs 1.17 lakh crores of central funds allotted to the state for the 2023-24 beneath the varied schemes, stories information company PTI citing a supply on the Raj Bhavan.
The supply additional revealed that the governor’s letter was prompted by data that the state authorities has did not submit a number of Comptroller and Auditor Normal (CAG) stories to the meeting, thereby breaching its constitutional obligation.
“The West Bengal authorities has been allotted Rs 1.17 lakh crore of central funds in monetary yr 2023-24. There are allegations of gross misuse of these funds. The fiscal state of affairs of West Bengal is confronting a number of fiscal dangers and public monetary administration points,” the supply instructed information company PTI.
In his letter, the governor additionally highlighted a number of points, together with the rise in fiscal deficit from roughly Rs 33,500 crore in 2018-19 to round Rs 49,000 crore in 2022-23, whereas the GSDP-debt ratio elevated from 35.69 per cent to over 37 per cent throughout the identical interval.
Moreover, Bose identified that the state authorities used a considerable portion of public debt receipts for debt reimbursement from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
“The West Bengal authorities has additionally benefitted vastly from successive Finance Fee awards. As per the Fifteenth Finance Fee Award, the state authorities has been beneficial to obtain a income deficit grant of Rs 40,115 crore from 2021-22 to 2024-25. This grant is as excessive as 13.62 per cent of the full income deficit grant beneficial by the Fifteenth Finance Fee for the states. In 2023-24, out of whole income of Rs 2.13 lakh crore of West Bengal, central switch alone was Rs 1.17 lakh crore constituting round 55 per cent of the full income of the state,” the supply mentioned.
He additional talked about that six audit stories by the Comptroller and Auditor Normal (CAG) on the West Bengal authorities haven’t been offered within the state meeting that features Compliance Audit Report 2020-2021 (Report No. 2 of 2022), Audit Report 2020-2021 (Report No. 3 of 2022) 3), the State Funds Audit Report (SFAR) 2021-2022 (Report No. 1 of 2023), the Audit Report 2021-2022 (Report No. 2 of 2023), Efficiency & Compliance Audit Report 2021-2022 (Report No. 1 of 2024) and the State Funds Audit Report (SFAR) 2022-2023 (Report No. 2 of 2024).
In his letter, Bose cited Article 151 of the Indian Structure, which mandates that CAG audit stories associated to a state’s accounts have to be submitted to the governor, who shall then guarantee their presentation earlier than the state meeting.
Bose additionally acknowledged that the state authorities is answerable for taking the mandatory steps to desk the CAG stories within the meeting, as per the rule.
Moreover, the governor referred to as upon the state authorities to take care of fiscal prudence and transparency, and to current the identical earlier than the cupboard. He additionally urged the issuance of a White Paper detailing the state’s fiscal state of affairs.
