Kolkota, July 26: Left front partners have no problem with the State Government demanding Rs 1.14 lakh crore from the Centre for a period of five years starting 2005-10. They have no problem either with the Government asking the 12th Finance Commission to recover every year, black money worth Rs one hundred thousand crore in order to meet the demand of 28 States. However, a few of them have raised doubts about the Government's intentions to slash subsidies and introduce user charges in the power and irrigation sectors. According to a senior CPI leader, "the Government has rightly asked for over Rs one hundred thousand crore from the Centre because much of this money is routed from the State. But Front partners would not vote for cutting subsidies in sectors such as power and irrigation." His view was echoed by an RSP Minister who feels that, "commercialisation of power should be limited to commercial areas but for domestic consumption and in the agricultural sector power is a necessity and not a commodity, hence it needs to be subsidised." According to the Finance Minister the State Government this year has decided to bring down subsidy in power and irrigation from Rs 1,191 crore to Rs 915 crore. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta have in a meeting with a 12th Finance Commission panel placed a huge demand of Rs 1.14 crore apart from a permission to access markets to raise loans from banks and other financial institutions.
"While the Centre raises money from the banks at 12 per cent it charges a rate of Rs 12 per cent from the State. If the States are allowed to raise money directly, they will save on interest payment," the Finance Minister said after a meeting with the Finance Commission chairman C Rangarajan. Incidentally, West Bengal according to recent report is almost standing on the verge of being caught in a debt trap. The Finance Minister who has a penchant for statistics said that the State had demanded Rs 88,000 crore from the 11th Finance Commission but was given only 39 per cent of the amount. This time however, the Government has instead of censuring the Central policies for poor health of the State's economy placed its demand and a suggestion to realise the huge reserve of black money "which increases by one hundred thousand crore per year" to meet the States' demands.