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KOLKATA: Finally it is official. The state’s gross domestic product (GSDP) has crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark — and reached Rs 10.21 lakh crore — this year. The CSO has agreed to this fact which the state had been claiming for the past few months after a few rounds of deliberations.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and the state have agreed to a mutually acceptable data calculation, taking 2011-12 as the base year, as suggested by the CSO.

The 15th Finance Commission had requested the state last month to discuss with CSO and resolve the dispute in data between the Centre and state. The state till now took 2005-06 as base year and used RBI data. However, the Centre and all other states were using 2011-12 as base year and data supplied by the ministry of corporate affairs. State finance minister Amit Mitra said that it had assured the 15th Finance Commission chairman to resolve the dispute within August and it has done that much before the deadline.

Mitra on Thursday said, “When the nation’s GDP has increased by 6.7% in 2017-18 compared to the last financial year at constant prices, the state GDP (GSDP) has shown an increase of 9.15% during the same period. Not only that, the state’s industrial growth is three times the national industrial growth. When the state has shown a growth of 16.29%, the national figure is a meagre 5.54%.” Incidentally, in current prices, the GSDP growth of the state was 16.1% compared to the national figure of 10%.

Detailing out the figures that led to the overall growth, Mitra said, “The industrial growth depends on four parameters — manufacturing, electricity, mining and construction — and in all these areas, our state has outsmarted the national parameters. While in manufacturing sector, we recorded a growth of 10.2%, where the national growth figure is 5.74%. Similarly, in power sector, it’s 18.27% in the state, compared to the national figure of 7.17%. In mining, it’s 4.44% in Bengal, while nationally, it’s 2.94%.”

Mitra was ecstatic on the construction front. According to the data available, when the state has recorded a whopping growth of 27. 63%, the national figure is just 5.75%. Mitra also said that the increase of GDP is a result of increase in capital expenditure which the state has been doing successfully for the last few years. “The capital expenditure in 2010 and 2011 was Rs 2,225 crore, while between 2017 and 2018, it has increased to Rs 21,561 crore,” he added. “The state has successfully implemented projects and spent the money and that has been possible only because of the continuous monitoring by the chief minister. She conducted 400 administrative meetings, which are yielding results,” the finance minister said.

“Finally, the Centre had to accept the growth figures provided by the Bengal government. The CSO has promised to upload the revised figures on their website. This is a great achievement for the state and it reiterates that West Bengal is progressing at a much higher rate than the country,” he said.

