West Bengal Budget 2026-27 estimates lower revenue and fiscal deficits amid rising debt burden

Kolkata, June 22 (IANS) As Swapan Dasgupta, the state Finance Minister of the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled government in West Bengal since Independence, on Monday presented the full Budget for the financial year 2026-27, the Budget estimates for the fiscal under review projected improvements in both the revenue deficit and fiscal deficit, but indicated a marginal deterioration in the state’s accumulated debt figure.

As per the Budget estimates for 2026-27, the revenue deficit is projected at Rs 21,984.41 crore, which is 1.02 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), as against Rs 41,164.05 crore as per the revised estimates for the previous financial year of 2025-26.

Worth mentioning in this context is that a decline in the absolute revenue deficit figure indicates an improvement on this count.

Similarly, as per the Budget estimates for 2026-27, the fiscal deficit is projected at Rs 62,421.37 crore, which amounts to 2.91 per cent of the GSDP, as against Rs 67,773.98 crore as per the revised estimates for the previous financial year of 2025-26.

Like the revenue deficit, a decline in the absolute fiscal deficit figure also indicates an improvement on this count.

However, as per the Budget estimates for 2026-27, the accumulated debt figure of the state government, estimated at Rs 8,15,891.35 crore, is slated to rise marginally by March 31, 2027, from Rs 7,62,326.6 crore as on March 31, 2026, according to the revised estimates for 2025-26.

However, the discredit for this rising accumulated debt cannot be attributed to the current BJP-led government, since the entire debt burden was inherited by the current regime from the previous Trinamool Congress government.

In fact, at the beginning of his Budget speech earlier in the day, the state Finance Minister reminded the House that he was presenting the Budget in a situation where the government he represents has inherited an accumulated debt of over Rs 8.15 lakh crore.

The principal reason for which the previous Mamata Banerjee-led regime is being criticised is its alleged reliance on unbridled market borrowings to fund substantial non-plan and revenue expenditures.

In the financial year 2010-11, which was the last fiscal under the 34-year Left Front regime in West Bengal, the state’s accumulated debt stood at around Rs 1.99 lakh crore. However, during the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress, the accumulated debt figure increased to around Rs 8.15 lakh crore.

–IANS

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