West Bengal has become one of only two states in the over-Rs 10 lakh crore club to witness a positive GDP growth in the pandemic-hit year, the other being Tamil Nadu.

 

The Government claimed that demand-led financial packages in Bengal  had a good impact on the economy as it grew in the pandemic-hit year. Bengal, along with Bihar, Tripura, and Sikkim, were among the very few states that witnessed a positive GDP growth rate in 2020-21, when the country registered negative GDP growth of 7.7%.

 

Bengal had the highest GSDP among all eastern states at Rs 13.7 lakh crore in 2020-21, followed by Bihar at Rs 7.6 lakh crore. Bengal ranked sixth by GSDP, and experts pointed out that the base on which growth happened was considerable. During 2015-20, the east and Northeast region witnessed the highest GDP growth in the country. The investment in these areas are yielding results.

 

The Bengal finance minister said this was the Centre’s clear admission that the Mamata Banerjee government had pursued the right policies of demand stimulus and put cash in the hands of people. “Nationally, there was a massive negative growth and we have grown 1.2% in 2020-21.

 

Noted economist felt that Bengal had a good environment for economic transactions. The economist pointed out that the state’s economy was largely dependent on MSME segment and that it had done well.

 

Incidentally, as per State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC), banks in Bengal had lent Rs 63,000 crore for investment to medium-small industry between April 2020 and January 2021, with the state government’s support. The result was employment of 23 lakh.

 

Bengal’s GSDP had gone up 2.9 times from 2010-11 to 2019-20. The state’s tax collection had increased 3.6 times since 2011, and debt/GDP ratio had declined from 40.6% in 2011 to 34.8% at present. Fiscal deficit too had fallen from 4.2% to 2.9% in the latest count.

 

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/