Kolkata: Tension seems to be again brewing between the state government and the Centre as another notice has been sent to the state asking it to clear the dues for expenses incurred for the deployment of Central armed police forces for different purposes in Bengal.
Sources in the state government claimed that a communication was sent from the Union Home Ministry requesting clearance of Rs 1,852 crore, which includes the principal amount as well as penalty accrued for non-payment of earlier dues at the rate of 2.5 per cent on the principal unpaid amount.
The genesis of this matter lies in February 2023 when the Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman issued a statement that Bengal owes Rs 1,841 crore to the Centre for the deployment of CAPF in the state. In its reply, the state government had then said: “The forces are deployed as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India. The consent of the state governments is not taken regarding the need for the deployment of Central forces during these elections. Accordingly, the expenditure relating to the deployment of CAPF personnel for election duty should be borne by the Government of India and not by the states”.
In the wake of the present communication, sources said that the state government is likely to write back with the same reasoning that it earlier presented to scotch the claims of the Union Finance minister.
The state and the Centre have been locking horns over dues relating to several matters. Bengal government has alleged that the Centre owes more than Rs 2,400 crore to Bengal as GST compensation. Nirmala Sitharaman had claimed that the dues could not be cleared because the West Bengal government allegedly did not send the GST compensation cess claim with an AG certificate from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
Recently, a delegation of Trinamool MPs, led by the party’s national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, submitted a memorandum to the office of Giriraj Singh, Union minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, stating that as of April 2023, the dues owed to Bengal under various schemes such as MGNREGA, PMGSY, PMAY, and NSAP stand at approximately Rs. 12,300 crore.