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Basics of the debt demon by Devadeep Purohit

Mass leaders in India have a tradition of broaching BSP —bijli, sadak and pani — issues to strike a chord during election rallies.

However, in almost each of her 150-plus rallies across the state in the election season, Mamata Banerjee deviated from the conventional mix and squeezed into her speech phrases like debt burden, public finance and economic recovery.

Whether such esoteric terms found resonance or not, Mamata did get across the message that all was not well with the state’s finances. The head-spinning accumulated debt of Rs 1.98 lakh crore (yes, it has 10 zeroes) also raised the spectre of an impending dam-burst.

“Mamata realised much ahead that reviving the state’s finances was going to be the biggest challenge facing her and by repeatedly harping on the issue, she made people realise that there is a problem,” said a close aide of the Trinamul chief.

The countdown has now begun for Mamata to confront the demon. Three days before she steps into the Raj Bhavan to be sworn in chief minister, The Telegraph looks at the most daunting task that lies coiled in Writers’ Buildings.

Debt, we don’t part

The Bengal government under the Left Front developed a habit of spending more than its earnings, forcing the administration to borrow and pile up debt. An RBI report on state finances has thrown up that headline figure of over Rs 1.98 lakh crore.

Borrowing is not a sin and governments — including the one in Delhi — take loans from different sources but what harms the economy is over-reliance on debt.

The Left Front leaders never tire of dwelling on indebtedness of other states and the Centre but Bengal ranks third — after Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan — among the states in terms of debt as a percentage of gross state domestic product (GSDP), the value of goods and services produced in the state in a year. (See debt chart)

To pay for its daily expenses, the Bengal government has regularly knocked on the doors of the RBI for ways and means advances (WMAs). Till March 18, the Bengal government had to approach the RBI on 109 days for normal WMAs. The state government had to resort to overdrafts — borrow more than the stipulated amount — from the RBI on 62 occasions, which was the highest among all states in 2010-11.

Borrowing from other sources has continued unabated as internal resource mobilisation has not kept pace with ballooning expenditure.

“The government has borrowed Rs 4,667 crore from the market and is about to take another Rs 2,575 crore this month. The accumulated market borrowings will then touch Rs 7,242 crore, almost half of the annual ceiling of Rs 15,390.64 crore,” said a senior officer in the state finance department.

Aware of the mess, the Union finance ministry told the state government several times to draw up a fiscal revival road map. But the Left government did not pay heed.

Instead of working on a comprehensive plan to improve the finances, outgoing finance minister Asim Dasgupta responded to the crisis as an accountant by issuing circulars to state treasuries to stop making payments. “There are several restrictions in place on making payments. That might have helped in tiding over the crisis for a short period but the future still looks grim,” an official said.

The loan portfolio of the state government suggests that unless remedial steps are taken, state finances would become unmanageable in the next five years.

According to the RBI report, the government will have to start paying off the creditors in another five to seven years as over 69 per cent of government securities — the instrument used to mop up money — will start maturing. “Revenue augmentation is the only way we can address this problem,” the official said.

Low on income

Many economists have expressed surprise over Bengal’s poor performance in revenue generation despite a steady growth in the state economy that averaged over 7 per cent in the last decade.

The RBI report on state finances highlights Bengal’s poor track record in revenue generation. The ratio of own tax revenue to GSDP has been hovering around 4 per cent since 2008-09. Even states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have improved their performance in the last few years but Bengal is locked in at a lower level. (See revenue chart)

The Left leaders have always claimed that the poor revenue generation was nothing unnatural as income from agriculture and unorganised sector activities accounted for a large share of the state’s earnings.

But experts believe that the state lost out on legitimate revenues because of its failure in curbing corruption at sales tax — one of the big sources of revenue — offices and poor tax administration.

“If the government can create a proper information technology network, these problems can be addressed. In the past, there have been efforts to create a proper system by inviting tenders but the projects were never launched,” said a finance department official.

High on spending

Fiscal profligacy has long been diagnosed as the main problem facing the Bengal economy. As holding on to the power by doling out favours was the main focus, the government kept on creating jobs and spending under non-plan heads.

The job creation spree resulted in a state bureaucracy of over 10 lakh and an annual salary burden of over Rs 25,000 crore. As resource generation was low on priority, the deficit has become difficult to contain.

According to the RBI report, Bengal has the highest gross fiscal deficit to GSDP ratio —an indicator of a state’s deficit situation —among the big states. (See deficit chart)

“The deficit figure is so high because around 93 per cent of the state’s total revenue receipts is spent paying salaries and repaying interest on outstanding liabilities,” said a state government official.

As the state government was left with very little after paying for the salaries and making the interest payments, it failed to create assets for the state. The RBI report highlights that Bengal has the lowest capital outlay to GSDP ratio among the big states. (See assets chart)