8% growth rate may not be achieved: West Bengal

NEW DELHI: Strongly criticising the Centre for implementing Pay Commission that hit state finances, West Bengal on Saturday warned that eight per cent growth target in Tenth Plan might not be achieved if the acute problems in fiscal situation of states was not redressed.
"The achievement of the targets as fixed for states in the 10th Plan obviously lies in the effective redressal of the fiscal problem the states have been passing through. Else, the entire 10th Plan projections might be upset," the state''s Development and Planning Minister Nirupam Sen said at the National Development Council meeting.
He also made an emphatic demand that the Centre "should take new initiatives for providing effective debt relief to the states".
Sen said the Left Front government had during 9th Plan sought that the Centre should bear at least 50 per cent of the additional expenditure for enhanced salaries under the Pay Commission as the states would emulate the Centre in implementing the recommended pay scales leading to "unsustainable revenue expenditure".
Opposing the disinvestment process, he said the policy of "dismantling" the public sector would lead to severe shortfall in public sector savings which would in turn "play havoc with the fiscal system" besides affecting the workers and the ancilliary units.