Bengal's capital, plan expenditure up in 2017-18 fiscal, says Mamata

At the same time, the state government has also become successful in ensuring a significant increase in the own tax collection despite "adverse effects of demonetisation and hasty implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST)".

As per the record with the closure of the treasury on March 31, the data revealed that the plan expenditure of 2017-18 has reached Rs 57,778.60 crore which was Rs 49,609 in 2016-17. The state government had set a target of increasing the plan expenditure by 11 percent but with the Chief Minister constantly taking stock of different projects, it has gone up to 16.5 percent.

In a tweet regarding the same, the Chief Minister stated: "Despite the adverse effects of demonetisation and hasty implementation of GST on the economy, the performance of our state in the financial sector during 2017-18 has significantly improved due to our focused and persistent approach."

Giving details of the "significant increase" in the state's tax collection, Banerjee has maintained in the tweet: "…The tax collection in 2017-18 has gone up to Rs 52,971 crore as compared to Rs 45,647 crore in 2016-17, a gross increase of Rs 7,300 crore."

She further mentioned in the tweet: "Plan expenditure has grown by 16.5% as against our target of 11%, from Rs 49,609 crore of 2016-17 to Rs 57,778.60 crore in 2017-18." The increase in 2017-18 fiscal is five times to that of in 2010-11.

Highlighting the state's success in setting an all-time record in increasing the capital expenditure, the Chief Minister maintained in the tweet: "Capital expenditure witnessed a growth of nearly 59% from Rs 12,028.50 crore in 2016-17 to a record Rs 19,084.70 crore in 2017-18." The increase by 59 percent is an all-time high in capital expenditure.

Comparing the capital expenditure of 2017-18 with that of the same of in 2010-11, Banerjee maintained in the tweet: "Total capital expenditure in 2010-11 was Rs 2,225.75 crore. The total capital expenditure in 2017-18 is 8.5 times as compared to 2010-11." She further maintained in the tweet: "All this has been possible due to our consistent and close monitoring and holding more than 400 administrative review meetings and public distribution programmes at state, district and block levels."

In this connection, Amit Mitra, the state Finance Minister, added: "The Chief Minister's monitoring and steps taken by all the departments in implementing the projects have helped in increasing the plan expenditure."