West Bengal’s Finance Minister Dr. Swapan Dasgupta has stressed on the need to eliminate past discriminatory practices in revenue collection, noting that such biases had led to a decline in state revenue.
Speaking at a discussion organized by the West Bengal Revenue Service Officers’ Association titled Financing Development Towards a Resurgent West Bengal, Dr Dasgupta stated that West Bengal lags in revenue collection and highlighted the critical financial condition of municipalities across the state, except for Kolkata and Bidhannagar. Calling for improvements in the revenue collection system, he urged revenue officers to play a vital role in the state’s growth.
Attending the event, Higher Education and Technical Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay remarked that the state government faces immense challenges and emphasized shifting focus from vote-bank politics to developmental growth. Pointing out that states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra generate significantly higher own-tax revenues, he urged steps to boost State GST collection, expand investment and business, widen the taxpayer base, and find ways to reduce the burden of subsidies and loans on the state treasury, adding that the government has already initiated work toward these goals through its first budget.
Additionally, the Chief Advisor to the State Government, Subrata Gupta, noted that many state infrastructure assets remain underutilised due to a lack of proper planning and decision-making, promising that appropriate policies will be adopted.
The event opened with a presentation on the history of tax payment and collection in India. During an interactive session with the ministers, State GST officials highlighted the importance of Centre-State coordination in revenue assessment and collection, noting that a lack of prior coordination caused heavy losses to the state exchequer, while expressing hope that the current administration will follow the right path.
