NEW DELHI, May 19: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre has shifted into a new accomodative gear towards West Bengal, acquiescing to a number of the state's financial demands.If today's meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was any indication, ideological differences did not come in the way of the laundry list of financial measures that the state is seeking. From an increased slice of the state's share of devolution of central taxes, to greater repatriation of black money appropriated by the Centre, to the speedy introduction of the consignment tax to enhanced royalties for West Bengal's coal, the Centre agreed to all of Calcutta's major demands.Besides Vajpayee and Basu, also present at the hour-long meeting were Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Jaswant Singh. From the state, West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and top officials were present.``It was anexhaustive meeting with 15 out of 25 of the items on our list taken up. The Prime Minister and his ministers had come prepared. We are satisfied with the outcome,'' Dasgupta told The Indian Express.The West Bengal side was no less prepared. On May 8, Basu had written a letter to the Prime Minister as a prelude to his first meeting since Vajpayee assumed the Prime Minister's office. The Chief Minister came armed with his 25-point memorandum of fiscal demands all printed out in the form of a 116-page booklet.Not just West Bengal, almost all the states have been clamouring for a increased devolution of taxes from the combined pool of Central taxes like income tax, excise and customs duties, which they believe should be around 33.3 per cent to begin with. The West Bengal government had objected to the discriminatory treatment meted out to the state on rates of royalty on coal, with the state losing about Rs 260 crore annually.Among the other demands were the state's right to levy taxes on thefast-growing service industry, an enhanced share of the foreign exchange earnings from tea and jute exports, an increase in the outright grant component of the Central Plan Assistance and additional funds for chacking the erosion of rivers in the state.According to Dasgupta the Prime Minister agreed to share the increased financial burden resulting from the recent wage hike to government employees as well part of the costs of revising the salaries of university teachers.A number of demands related to infrastructure development in the state, including the development of Calcutta and Haldia ports, the setting up of a private sector port at Kulpi. Dasgupta said 15 priority items of the financial package were taken up with the Prime Minister conceding to some of them, while the others were referred to Sinha and Singh for further discussions at the Finance Ministry and Planning Commission level, respectively.Since the time was limited even to take up all the pending items on the financial wish list,contentious issues like the CPM's opposition to the BJP's decision to conduct the recent nuclear tests without consulting other national parties and the resultant economic sanctions did not come up for discussion, Dasgupta said.Meanwhile, with the Panchayat elections in West Bengal scheduled for May 28, the Centre's largesse will not go down well with BJP ally, Mamata Banerjee. The CPM's failure to mop up additional finances for the state is the main plank of attack for Trinamool Congress, locked in a decisive battle with the ruling CPM in the state.
