Negative order, adverse indices to overshadow WB biz summit

Kolkata The Bengal Global Business Summit, the annual event held by the West Bengal Government to showcase the State as an ideal investment destination will be held this year under the twin shadows of the negative order against the State by an Arbitral Tribunal on the Singur land issue and the adverse economic indices of West Bengal’s much higher dependence on central grants than the State’s own revenue.

The BGBS-2023 will be held from November 21 to November 23, but the State government has had a big shock just days before the mega event due to the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal. The three-member tribunal has ruled that Tata Motors is entitled to recover from West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation a sum of Rs 765.78 crore with interest of 11 per cent per annum from September 1, 2016, till actual recovery.

This is compensation to the company for the closure of its Nano car project in Singur in Hooghly district.

Industry observers feel that although none of the dignitaries present at BGBS-2023 will raise this issue at the forum, but the tribunal’s order will cast a pall over the proceedings and definitely create a buzz among the audience present at the inaugural session of the event.

It is not yet clear whether any representative/s from the Tata Group will be present at the business meet.

The second cause of embarrassment to the West Bengal Government just ahead of the business summit is the release of the negative economic indices that highlights the poor performance of the State’s finances and its failure to attract big-ticket investments to push up its own tax revenue generation.

As per statistics of the state finance department, the share of central grants, which include both, the State’s share in central taxes and the grant-in-aid, is 139 per cent of West Bengal’s own revenue, which include both, tax and non-tax revenue, as of the last financial year 2022-23.