Kolkata: In a blunt message to West Bengal leadership, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has a responsibility to deliver on promises, even as he assured full support to the state for economic development.
"Madam Chief Minister, you have a mandate to rule the state, and therefore, you have the responsibility to deliver what was promised," the Finance Minister said while addressing the West Bengal Global Business Summit.
At the same time, he also assured that the Centre would 'strongly support' West Bengal government in its growth aspirations and said that India remains a strong federal state despite political differences.
"Centre will strongly support the West Bengal government and I assure that," Jaitley said in reply to remarks made by Banerjee that political differences would not block the road to development in the state.
"In all areas where states want to prosper, we are here to fully support you... Collectively all states will have to grow," Jaitley said.
Banerjee had earlier said in the morning on the first day of the Summit that "political differences will not block the road to development and in a federal structure, a strong state will ensure a strong Centre which is also needed for good governance."
Stressing on the need to attract investments, Jaitley said, "We need to create an environment where we do not merely attract investment, but also promise profitable return on that investment.... Investment will lead to greater investment."
Referring to specific issues concerning West Bengal, he said industries moved out of the state despite several advantages.
"Our challenge is to re-establish West Bengal as an industrial centre once again," he said, adding that one of the biggest challenges is to improve the ease of doing business.
"Investor has a choice... He has a choice of which state to invest in. He also has a choice of which country to invest in and therefore we have to narrow down his choice so that his choice focuses on India as a particular state," he said.
The Finance Minister further said that West Bengal would benefit from coal auction and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
"A large part of the money which we are going to get because of the auction of coal blocks is going to go to coal producing states and West Bengal is going to be (one) of the four states which would be major beneficiaries of that," Jaitley said.
On GST, he said, "I have not the least doubt in my mind that the revenue position is going to be much better in the first year of GST implementation."
Banerjee said West Bengal has its own land bank, land map and land use policy so that investors could take advantage of it.
The state, she said, served as a gateway to south-east Asia and would help investors gain access to markets of Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
Replying to Banerjee's remarks, Jaitley said, "You rightly said every state will have to grow. Even in a muti-party democracy, government of different political shapes are there. Also there are national causes to stand together."
"You have got the mandate to rule the state and you have the responsibility to deliver what was promised. We have the mandate to rule the country from Delhi. India remains a strong federalism of states."
The Finance Minister said economic development of India and of the states go hand in hand and almost every state in the country is trying to create an industry-friendly environment which also leads to competitive federalism.
Jaitley said West Bengal had a long legacy of industry but unfortunately many industrial units had moved out. "Now our challenge is to re-industrialise the state."
Referring to state Finance Minister Amit Mitra's remarks that the industry sector of the state had grown more than that of the country, Jaitley said the "share of manufacturing in West Bengal is on a narrow base."
"It is the manufacturing sector which creates jobs and those under-employed in the agriculture sector move to manufacturing," he added.
Stating that states would have to cut down on red tapism and make it easier to do business, Jaitley said investors now have a choice in selecting their destination.
"There is a need to narrow down the choice," he said, adding that India continues to grow with cooperation between the Centre and states, despite political differences.
"We are in an era of competitive federalism. We need to cooperate with each other to fulfil the mandate. We are also interested on inter-state equity," he said.
Jaitley also urged the state to go for higher public spending, concentrate on manufacturing and attract investments. "As global investors are looking at us, we would have to use this opportunity."
He said West Bengal would stand to benefit monetarily from the proceeds of the coal block auction and GST compensation.
On the much-talked about land issue, Banerjee said land is not a problem in Bengal.
"But we will not acquire land forcibly," she told industry leaders, adding that industry and agriculture would work together.
This is the first time since NDA came to power at the Centre that Banerjee has shared dais with a union minister in a bid to woo investments in the state.
Banerjee had earlier criticised the NDA government for not giving special financial assistance to West Bengal in order to reduce its huge debt burden, besides for other issues like the Saradha scam.
The business summit is being attended, among others, by industrialists like Adi Godrej of Godrej Group, Y C Deveswar of ITC, Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank, Naina Lal Kidwai of HSBC, Jyotsna Suri of Lalit Group, Swati Piramal of Piramal Enterprises, NTPC chief Arup Roy Chowdhury, SAIL chairman C S Verma and TCS CEO N Chandrasekhar, besides prominent industrialists of the state.
Delegation from countries like Czech Republic, Israel, Korea, Luxembourg, USA, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Bangladesh and Spain were also present at the meet.
