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West Bengal takes market loan for third time this month
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SME Times News Bureau | 25 Jan, 2022
The precarious financial condition of West Bengal again came to the fore
when the state took a loan for the third time in this month, making it
evident that it is struggling hard to negotiate the expenses caused by
the social schemes launched by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
According
to a statement issued by the Reserve Bank of India, the state borrowed
Rs 3,000 crore from the open market on Monday - the third time in this
month taking the total borrowing to Rs 6,500 crore this month - making
it second after Uttar Pradesh to borrow such a huge amount from the
market. Earlier the state had borrowed Rs 3,500 crore in two instalments
in this month.
The RBI statement said that altogether 14 states
borrowed a total of Rs 24,639 crore from the open market on Monday.
Uttar Pradesh borrowed Rs 5,000 crore - making the state have the
highest borrowing from the market.
On January 18, 12 states
borrowed a total of Rs 20,659 crore from the market. Of these 12, West
Bengal took another loan of Rs 1,000 crore. Uttar Pradesh that borrowed
Rs 3,000 crore was the highest borrower. On January 6, the West Bengal
government borrowed Rs 2,500 crore from the market - the maximum out of
the nine states that borrowed from the market.
Last month, the
West Bengal government twice borrowed from the open market. On December
14, seven states borrowed a total of Rs 7,053 crore from the market. Of
these seven states, West Bengal was the highest borrower with Rs 2,500
crore. On December 24, a total of 16 states borrowed a total of Rs
22,984 crore from the market. In this case too, West Bengal had the
highest amount of Rs 4,000 crore. This means that from December 14 to
January 24, the West Bengal government borrowed a total of Rs 13,000
crore from the open market.
In the period between April 2020 to
December 2020 when its revenue plummeted to all time low because of the
pandemic situation and the consequent lockdown, the state raised around
Rs 35,000 crore from the market but during the current financial year
between April 2021 to December 2021, it went for a market borrowing of
Rs 52,500 crore. During the same period in 2019 the state borrowed Rs
28,000 crore via the State Development Loan.
According to experts
with revenue generation going down, multiple market borrowings have now
become the essential compulsion of the West Bengal government now to
meet its recurring expenses. The experts are of opinion that the state
is struggling with the non-plan expenditure mostly to meet the promises
made by Chief Minister during her election campaign.
Incidentally,
when the 34-year rule of the Left Front came to an end in 2011 and
Banerjee became the Chief Minister, the accumulated debt of the state
was Rs 1.93 lakh crore. But, according to the state government's budget
figures, the accumulated debt is likely to go upto Rs 5.5 lakh crore by
the end of the 2020-21 financial year.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
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US Dollar
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102.90 |
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89.35 |
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53.40 |
As on 12 Oct, 2024 |
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