West Bengal suffered a revenue deficit of 2.22 per cent in 2012-13, the report on State finances released by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India noted.
Rolling fiscal targets for 2010-15 for the State was fixed as per the West Bengal Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (WBFRBM) Act, which was introduced in 2010 and enacted in 2011.
The Act aimed at bringing in cautious fiscal management and improving fiscal stability by progressively eliminating revenue deficit, reducing fiscal deficit accompanied by wise debt management, consistent with fiscal sustainability and greater transparency. According to the report, West Bengal’s revenue deficit was 2.22 per cent, against the WBFRBM target of 1.1 per cent.
“Revenue receipts grew at a rate of 16 per cent, while the revenue expenditure was 12 per cent. During the year, revenue receipts were Rs. 68,296 crore as against revenue expenditure of Rs. 82,111 crore; resulting in a revenue deficit of Rs. 13,815 crore,” the report stated.
Observing that the State was getting negligible returns from its investments in irrigation works, the report stated that return on investments in statutory corporations, rural banks, etc. were less than 0.1 per cent. The State government paid interest at the average rate of 7.78-8.7 per cent on its borrowing during 2008-09 till 2012-13.
Capital expenditure and expenditure under the economic sector was below the estimated budget. Capital expenditure was only 5.19 per cent of the total expenditure during the year.
The report noted delays in submitting annual accounts of autonomous bodies and placement of separate audit reports of some bodies in the Legislative Assembly. Officers of test checked departments did not monitor progress of expenditure. Stating that provisions of the budget manual and West Bengal Financial Rules were violated, the report stated: “There were instances of provision of funds, unnecessary or excessive re-appropriations and rush of expenditure at the end of the year. In some cases, the anticipated savings were not surrendered leaving no scope for utilising funds for other developmental purposes.”