In a forceful and articulate defence of West Bengal’s position on both its COVID-19 related healthcare differences and the state’s financial differences with the Central government, Amit Mitra, the state finance minister, has said, “West Bengal will not accept anything against federal principles.”He added, “We will not be throttled.”In a 50-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Dr Mitra, who is also West Bengal’s industry minister, MSME minister and IT minister, said that the decision to send two Inter-Ministerial Central teams to his state without consulting the state government was a breach of protocol because it was “not in keeping with spirit of cooperation (needed) in a federal polity.”After the “courteous and gracious” cooperation shown by Mamata Banerjee in the video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi it was also rude to inform her of the decision to send the teams, three hours after their arrival in the state.Also read: In Bengal, ‘BJP Versus Mamata’ Politics Takes Centre Stage in Coronavirus FightMitra told The Wire that the state government could not understand why districts like Kalimpong or Jalpaiguri had been chosen. Neither in terms of the number of cases nor in terms of the rate of increase – the two criteria specified by Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal – was their inclusion justified. Gujarat and Ahmedabad, in particular, had far larger numbers and a greater rate of increase but were not chosen.Mitra was critical of Governor Jagdeep Dhankar who, he said, tweets daily against the state government. Mitra defended Derek O’Brien’s description of the central teams as “adventure tourism.”Questioned about the complaint that West Bengal was not testing enough he said this was because many of the kits initially received by the state were faulty, a fact now confirmed on a national basis by the ICMR. Mitra rejected the suspicion that the audit committee appointed to determine whether deaths were caused by COVID-19 or co-morbidities would hide COVID deaths.Also read: COVID-19: Data Shows West Bengal’s Testing Is the Lowest Among Larger StatesHe also strongly defended the state’s decision to permit sweet shops and flower markets to open till noon. ‘Misthi doi’ is part of Bengali culture and the flowers are for pujas, he said.Speaking to The Wire about West Bengal’s financial differences with the Centre, Mitra said he had written eight letters to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman but received no response. Only a small part of one of the state’s four or five key requests had been agreed to.This is permission to extend the Ways and Means allowance to 60% of the March 31 limit. The state had asked for it be doubled. The difference, Mitra said, was about Rs 1500 crore but it had been refused.Mitra was particularly upset about the Centre’s failure to respond to two requests. First, the request made by the chief minister directly to the PM to increase the borrowing limit of the states under the FRBM rules to 5% from the present 3%. Second, the request for a nine-month moratorium on repaying loans and interest. He said, as a result, this year, when the pandemic was raging and the lockdown crippling the economy, West Bengal would still have to allocate Rs 56,000 crore for debt servicing.Mitra said it was “very sad” that West Bengal has got no response whatsoever to the eight letters. He said he had even taken this up personally with Sitharaman but she still has not responded.In part two of the interview (after the commercial break), Mitra, who earlier served as Secretary General of FICCI for an unprecedented 17 years, said the central government must come up with a package of 6% of GDP (around Rs 10 lakh crore). He gave three reasons as to why this was sustainable.First, India’s debt-to-GDP ratio is just 69% compared to 106% in USA and 240% in Japan. Second, the crash in the oil price would be a boon for India which imports 83% of its oil. Third, India’s large foreign exchange reserves (approx. Rs 475 billion) are very comfortable.Also read: Rs 15,000-Crore COVID-19 ‘Emergency Package’ But Questions Remain on Govt StrategyMitra said this was not a time to worry about the fiscal deficit. “This is a question of survival”, he said. He said the Finance Minister “must come out of the crease and cross-bat.” The deficit, he added, can be monetised by the RBI.Speaking to The Wire, Mitra said he believes 250 million people have lost jobs, a figure that is over 100 million more than the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy. He called for “parachute dropping of resources” for these people. More specifically, Mitra said Rs 4 lakh crore must be digitally transferred to the bank accounts of the most poor and vulnerable and rations made universally available to them at zero cost.Speaking about the MSME sector, Mitra said they need immediate liquidity and called for immediate four-year loans with a total moratorium on repayment during the first year. He said something similar, though calibrated, needs to be done for the formal sector, particularly aviation, hospitality, tourism, non-essential retail, etc. who are crippled by the lockdown. He said his old organisation FICCI should immediately arrange meetings of top businessmen with the govt so a suitable calibrated package can be arrived at.Speaking about the states, Mitra told The Wire they should be given permission to directly borrow from the RBI.Mitra said if the coronavirus pandemic ended by October, animal spirits would revive and India could see GDP growth of 1% or so. But if it continued for longer growth would be zero or negative. He said he would not be shocked if it was negative.This is a paraphrased precis of Mitra’s interview. Please watch the full interview for accurate details. The interview will go up on The Wire’s website between 9 and 10 pm tonight.
