BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri Warns of Fiscal Crisis in Bengal, Criticizes State Budget

Ashok Lahiri, a BJP MLA from Balurghat and an economist, said on Friday that Bengal was experiencing a fiscal crisis and that things would become worse if the state government kept on its present course of high revenue spending without a clear plan for raising more money.

"During the Assembly's discussion of the state budget, Lahiri stated that the Trinamul government has a tradition of having revised estimates of revenue receipts that are lower than the budget estimates. This year was no exception to this,"

Lahiri was the first to speak during the Thursday talks on the budget that Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya (independent charge) had presented. On Saturday, the conversation will resume.

Speaking about the state's growing debt load, the BJP MLA—a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission—mentioned that the budget estimate for this fiscal year was Rs 5.86 lakh crore, but the state's total debt burden would increase to Rs 6,30,783 crore in the revised estimate for 2023–2024.

"Should the government persist in its current course, I fear we will witness an even more dire situation in the future," said the BJP MLA.

Using a range of statistics that he extracted from the budget documents, Lahiri, who had previously served as the central government's chief economic adviser, attempted to undermine the Trinamul government, which has been asserting that the Bengal economy is performing better than the Center.

This year's budget included a number of welfare programs, such as increased funding for the organization's main initiative, Lakhsmir Bhandar; subsidies for fishermen, weavers, and craftspeople; increases in the pay of village police and civic volunteers; and other tax exemptions.

Lahiri said in his 20-minute speech that the annual financial statement was unclear about where the money for all of those programs came from. Subsequent to highlighting the government's tax exemptions in the budget, which led to a tax collection deficit, the economist implored the finance minister to provide a report on the Assembly floor detailing the amount of income that was lost.

The BJP MLA said that the budget lacked specifics and was from a "fairy tale land." In addition, he attacked the Trinamul administration for not fulfilling its capital spending obligations.

The budget contains no mention of revenue mobilization. Where will the funds originate from? Every thoughtful budget has a section dedicated to lost income. I implore the minister of finance, working through you, the Speaker, to provide a breakdown of the budget's lost income," he said.

Several lawmakers from Trinamul, notably Jadavpur MLA Debabrata Majumdar and parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, opposed Lahiri by criticizing the Union budget that Nirmala Sitharaman had given.

During his 20-minute floor speech in favor of the state budget, Majumdar said, "Your government in Delhi has cut down on capital expenditure in the current financial year from Rs 10,00,961 crore (Budget Estimate) to Rs 9,50,246 crore (Revised Estimate)."

Majumdar said that the Center's debt has been increasing as a consequence of the Narendra Modi government's failure to meet revenue realisation objectives. "We've noted every one of these problems. He questioned, "Can the economist MLA defend the central budget?"

Lahiri said, "There should be no comparison between an apple and an orange," in response to a question about Trinamul's input on the Union budget.