After the meeting between West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in Delhi on Tuesday, the annual plan outlay for the state for 2013-14 was fixed at Rs 30,314 crore.
'We held discussions on various issues, including public private partnership (PPP) projects, horticulture, creation of cold storage for agriculture sector and the potential of sectors like tourism. The planned assistance is for Rs. 30,314 crore which will be a combination of state and central assistance,' Ahluwalia said. He said utilisation of central funds for flagship schemes by the state had been good. The growth rate of 7.6 percent had been achieved, which was better than the national average of 4.96 percent in 2012-13. Internal revenue growth was also satisfactory, he said, adding efforts aimed at improving revenue growth must continue. He said Banerjee had invited commission members to Kolkata to hold further talks to discuss various other projects which are facing bottlenecks. The state government has one of the highest debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, which is estimated to be around Rs 2 lakh crore. Banerjee said, 'The state is facing financial problems due to the repayment of debt from the previous government. However, our efforts have shown results with high growth in our industrial, agriculture and services sectors.'
'The state has potential from tourism to manufacturing sector,' she said, adding state's growth in sectors such as agriculture and textiles and overall growth was higher than national average due to efforts made by her government.
'We held discussions on various issues, including public private partnership (PPP) projects, horticulture, creation of cold storage for agriculture sector and the potential of sectors like tourism. The planned assistance is for Rs. 30,314 crore which will be a combination of state and central assistance,' Ahluwalia said. He said utilisation of central funds for flagship schemes by the state had been good. The growth rate of 7.6 percent had been achieved, which was better than the national average of 4.96 percent in 2012-13. Internal revenue growth was also satisfactory, he said, adding efforts aimed at improving revenue growth must continue. He said Banerjee had invited commission members to Kolkata to hold further talks to discuss various other projects which are facing bottlenecks. The state government has one of the highest debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio, which is estimated to be around Rs 2 lakh crore. Banerjee said, 'The state is facing financial problems due to the repayment of debt from the previous government. However, our efforts have shown results with high growth in our industrial, agriculture and services sectors.'
'The state has potential from tourism to manufacturing sector,' she said, adding state's growth in sectors such as agriculture and textiles and overall growth was higher than national average due to efforts made by her government.