West Bengal's debt burden at Rs 2,08,382 cr till Mar'12

Kolkata, Jun 25:

Finance Minister Amit Mitra said the state government has a debt burden of Rs 2,08,382.58 crore as on Mar 31, 2012.

According to the details submitted by the Accountant General, the loan till Feb 2012 was Rs 2,05,368.13 crore, Mitra said replying to a question at the state Assembly. He said the state government has to incur an amount of Rs 16,097.31 crore annually towards interest of the arrear loan. The total loan amount, including the principal and the interest, stood at Rs 23,199.96 crore annually.

To a supplementary, the Minister said the loan arrears till Mar 31, 2011 was Rs 1,87,387.40 crore, of which the market borrowing was Rs 18,090 crore. Market borrowing till the end of the financial year 2010-11 was Rs 18,090 crore, which rose to Rs 20,995 crore the following year, he said.

Another component of the loan was from National Small Savings, which stood at Rs 78,753.54 crore till Mar 31, 2011. This loan component from National Small Savings stood at Rs 79,106.04 crore at the end of the financial year 2011-12, he said. Mitra said the state government was bound to pay this loan back and there was no escape from it.

Describing West Bengal as the only state having VAT registration online, Mitra said that as regards collection of revenues, the state had liberalised the tax system.

PTI