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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mamata's blackmailing tactics: Centre ought to resist it

Mamata's blackmailing tactics: Centre ought to resist it

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published Published on Apr 24, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 24, 2012
-The Economic Times
 
On Saturday, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee told New Delhi that it had 15 days to announce a debt-relief package for the state. She did not specify what would happen after the deadline, but said that her patience was wearing thin. 

The Centre cannot give in to such blackmail. Banerjee doesn't have to bother about the huge risk that this demand creates. The Centre has few powers to write off, or postpone state debt. If Bengal's interest or principal repayments are postponed for three years, other high-debt states like Punjab and Kerala could ask for similar packages, forcing the Centre to take on the burden of paying lenders. 

This will drive finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's fragile 5.1% fiscal deficit target deep into the red. Bengal's finance minister Amit Mitra had recently reckoned that the state was paying about Rs 15,000 crore as interest and Rs 5,400 crore as principal to the Centre on various borrowings. 

This, presumably, is the amount that Banerjee wants a moratorium on. Apart from postponing debt, there is no plan to show how Bengal will repair its disastrous finances. The latest estimates show Bengal's total debt at a staggering Rs 2.08 lakh crore. Of this, it owes nearly Rs 90,000 crore to market lenders and about Rs 80,000 crore to subscribers of national small savings schemes. 

The Centre has lent it Rs 12,350 crore. Bengal is running on borrowed money. The only way out of this mess is to generate more revenues. Banerjee believes that taxes are a burden on Bengal's poor. Last month, Mitra promised to raise revenues by Rs 200 crore in his first budget, but how he will do this is unclear. 

He imposed an entry tax for goods coming into the state and higher rates on some 'luxury' products. Long before the Trinamool came to power, it was clear that the only way to get Bengal back on the rails was to get investments and industry back to the state. 

For that, the administration has to create a climate of confidence, dispelling the gloom of 34 years of Left rule. Bengal will revive if Banerjee can run an efficient, revenue-earning and investment-friendly show. Reckless governance and asking for debt recasts will take it further into the red.

The Economic Times, 24 April, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/mamatas-blackmailing-tactics-centre-ought-to-resist-it/articleshow/12845412.cms


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