Business / West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya presents budget

Chandrima Bhattacharya: Thousands of crores of loans are taken by every state government for all works including the development of infrastructure. In this, apart from the central government, the loan taken from the World Bank or any other institution is also included. But what if everyone drowns in the debt taken by the government. Yes, we are talking about the West Bengal government. West Bengal, with a population of nine crores, has a total debt of Rs 5.86 lakh crore. In this sense, on an average, every person in the state has a debt of Rs 60,000.

79000 crore debt was proposed to be raised

In the budget for the financial year 2023-24, presented in the state assembly, it has been proposed to raise a loan of Rs 79,000 crore from the market. This is slightly higher than the revised estimate of Rs 75,000 crore for 2022-23. When the ruling Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, the state had a debt of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. That is, during the tenure of Mamtar Banerjee, the debt of the government has increased by more than 4 lakh crores, which is a shocking figure.

Announcement to implement old pension scheme

Expressing concern over the high debt burden, economist Ajitabh Ray Chowdhury said that if wealth is also created along with such high debt, then the debt burden on the future generation will be reduced. Let us tell you that at this time some states have announced to re-implement the old pension scheme. After this announcement made by many state governments, constant warnings are being given by the RBI and the central government.

It was said on behalf of RBI that the states already have a debt of lakhs of crores. In such a situation, the decision to implement the old pension scheme is wrong. Due to this, future generations will be burdened with debt.