Kolkata, Feb 12 (IANS) The West Bengal government will end the financial year 2025-26 with an accumulated debt figure of around Rs 7.72 lakh crore, as indicated in the documents of the state budget for the fiscal under review which was presented by the West Bengal minister of state for finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya on the floor of the Assembly on Wednesday.
The total accumulated debt by March 31, 2026 has been pegged at Rs 7,71,670.41 crore in the Budget estimates for 2025-26, which is 9.21 per cent higher than the figure of Rs 6,30,783.50 as on March 31, 2025, and as per the revised estimates for 2024-25.
Incidentally, at the end of the financial year 2010-11, which was the last financial year under the previous Left Front regime, the total accumulated debt was little over Rs 1.90 lakh crore.
The total debt repayment figure as per the budget estimates for 2025-26 has been pegged at Rs 32,732.08 crore, marginally higher than the figure of Rs 31,013.45 crore as per the revised estimates for 2024-25.
While the revenue deficit as on March 31, 2026 is projected at Rs 35,314.95 crore, the fiscal deficit as of the same period has been pegged at Rs 73,177.96 crore.
Economists feel that such projected accumulated debt figures are inevitable in a situation where there is no concrete proposal for generating higher the state’s own tax revenue, while there are huge revenue expenditures on account of different social welfare and dole schemes.
The two parallel factors, namely skyrocketing revenue expenditure and limited avenues of state tax revenue generation, are extremely difficult to manage at the same time, feel economists.
According to them, even during the previous Left Front regime, the avenues for higher state tax revenue generation were limited. However, the previous regime used to balance that limited resources by limiting its revenue expenditure.
Even the lapses in debt management by the West Bengal government have been highlighted in the latest report by NITI Aayog titled “Fiscal Health Index: 2025” especially as regards to percentage of interest payments of the total revenue receipts.
As per the report, where the financial year 2022-23 has been mainly taken as the fiscal under review, although West Bengal’s debt as a percentage of gross state domestic product (GSDP) has declined from 40.7 per cent in 2010-11, the last financial year under the previous Left Front regime, to 35.7 per cent in 2018-19, the real cause of concern for the state government on this count is the interest payment on the accrued debt.
“Interest payments account for 20.47 per cent of Revenue Receipts in the current year, constraining the ability of the state to allocate funds for development,” the report read.
The same report had also raised questions on expenditure management by the West Bengal government. As per the report, capital expenditure as a proportion of total expenditure, has reduced from 12.2 per cent in 2018-19 to 8.3 per cent in 2022-23 (the last fiscal taken under view in the report) and was lower than the national average.
Although the percentage under the head of social expenditure as a proportion of total expenditure had been comparatively higher in West Bengal at 28.2 per cent during the fiscal under review, the figure is again lower than the national average, the same report pointed out.
–IANS
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