Bengal’s dependence on grants-in-aid for improving revenue receipts extremely high: CAG report

Kolkata: West Bengal government’s dependence on grants-in-aid from the Union government to improve the revenue receipts of the state is extremely high, as per the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

“The state witnessed an increase of 3.83 per cent in revenue receipts during 2020-21 as compared to the previous year, primarily due to increase in grants-in-aid from the Government of India,” the report read.

The report also took note of the decline in the state’s expenditure behind asset creation or capital expenditure as against a sharp increase in revenue expenditure.

According to the CAG report, despite the increase in revenue expenditure for the state by 9.44 per cent during the fiscal under review, the expenditure on asset creation declined by 18.39 per cent during the same fiscal.

“Outstanding liabilities were also above the targets during 2016-18 and 2019-21. The liabilities of the state have been increasing year-on-year and over 58.84 per cent of market borrowings during the year 2020-21 were utilised to balance the revenue account, thereby restricting asset creation in the state,” it said.

The report also mentioned that because of a 9.44 per cent increase in the revenue expenditure, there had been an increase in revenue deficit of the state by 40.18 per cent.

According to the CAG report, the deficits could have been even higher had there not been instances of mis-classification of revenue transactions under capital section and non-accountal of other liabilities.

The CAG report also raised questions about the budgetary management of the state government by pointing out the instances of huge excess expenditure in several grants.

“None of the controlling officers explained the reasons for variations in expenditure vis-a-vis allocations to the Principal Accountant General (A&E), which affects the accountability mechanism of government and weakens legislative control over public finances,” the CAG report stated.

–IANS