Written by Atri MitraOctober 11, 2025 03:56 PM IST 3 min readThe latest loan will take the total amount borrowed till the third quarter of this financial year to Rs 78,000 crore. (PTI Photo)The West Bengal government will raise Rs 29,000 crore through market borrowings in the third quarter of this financial year to meet its needs, officials said. In its budget for the 2025-26 financial year, the state had estimated that it will be taking a loan of around Rs 82,000 crore. The latest loan will take the total amount borrowed till the third quarter of this financial year to Rs 78,000 crore.Officials with the Finance Department said that after seeing the third-quarter borrowing, it can be easily calculated that the total loan amount will be around Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the financial year. It will naturally increase the state’s total outstanding debt amount.In the 2023-24 financial year, the outstanding debt amount was Rs 6.33 lakh crore, which increased to more than Rs 7 lakh crore in 2024-25 and the estimation of 2025-26 financial year shows that it will cross Rs 8 lakh crore.On why market borrowing has risen to such a huge figure in this financial year, an official with the state finance department said, “The central government is not giving money under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G). Mamata Banerjee introduced the state’s own scheme, named ‘Banglar Bari’. Under this scheme, the state government has incurred an extra burden of around Rs 24,000 crore this financial year.”“The new Karmasree scheme was announced when the state government has been pressing for the release of pending central funds, including Rs 6,900 crore for MGNREGA – the rural employment scheme. For over two years, the Centre has withheld the payment of wages under MGNREGA in the state, citing siphoning of funds and fake job cards.Under the Karmasree scheme, the state government already has spent more than the budget allocation of Rs 3,700 crore for the pending wages of 21 lakh MGNREGA workers, he said.According to him, “When the state government estimated its loan amount during the budget, the Amader Para Amader Samadhan project was not introduced, under which the state is to spend Rs 10 lakh in each of its 80,000 booths. This adds up to at least Rs 8 thousand crore.”Story continues below this adResponding to the development, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said, “We can understand that the government is spending money, but the question is where? The government is not spending money to build infrastructure. It has 6.5 lakh vacancies. They are not recruiting. They are not giving outstanding DA (Dearness Allowance). Basically, they are looting public money in different ways and increasing the party fund.”BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri said, “The state government is not ready to increase any fare or its revenue. So, how does it meet the expenditure? By taking loan. But the loan is not free of cost. It is increasing the government’s burden.”Justifying the borrowing, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “Everybody knows why we are taking loans. Because the central government is not giving our legitimate dues. However, we are taking loans within our limit and have never crossed that.”Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:West Bengal