By IANS,
Kolkata : A day after West Bengal’s former finance minister Asim Dasgupta questioned the data used by the state to seek central funds, his successor Amit Mitra Tuesday said Dasgupta was “misinformed”.
“I can give accurate figures that the state spends 94 percent of its total income on payment of salaries and interest payment. The gross receipt of the state is Rs.65,847 crore,” Mitra told a media conference here.
Dasgupta Monday claimed that the state government spends 74 percent of its total income on salaries, interests and pensions, and not 94 percent as claimed by the Trinamool Congress-led government.
He also said the present government was giving “misleading facts for seeking central assistance”.
Mitra also took a dig at Dasgupta for saying that the present government, since May 20, has borrowed around Rs.10,000 crore from the open market.
“This statement is also not correct. The ceiling of market borrowing is Rs.17,828 crore in a year. But the Left Front during its tenure has taken a loan of Rs.5,213 crore in April-May 2011. It has also left back unpaid bills of Rs.3,000 crore and we have to borrow from the market to repay these bills.
“The total amount of market borrowing by the previous government and our government is Rs.15,173 crore…we have borrowed nearly Rs.7,000 crore in the last five months,” said Mitra.
Mitra also blamed the previous Left Front government for not paying dearness allowance (DA) to state government employees.
“They have not given DA to the employees in 2010. In January also they did not give the DA. They have burdened us with Rs.4,800 crore DA. Now, after the recent central hike in DA, it has gone up to Rs.6,900 crore. We will try to give the DA after the financial situation of the state improves,” he added.