India Signs $300 Million Loan with Asian Development Bank (ADB) to Promote Further Fiscal Reforms in West Bengal

Government of India has signed $300 mn loan deal with Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote fiscal reforms in West Bengal; to progress full-fledge public service delivery in the state.

The Second West Bengal Development Finance Program is built on earlier intervention under the Phase I project (2012) through the $400 million Program that targeted comprehensive fiscal consolidation program in the state.

Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance signed the loan on behalf of the Government of India, said that the programme aims to expand the fiscal reforms further in improving the revenue administration, expenditure rationalization and to facilitate more in public investment in the state.

It also targets to further grow-up the public investment through cut down the unproductive expenditure and savings from efficiencies in revenue collections. It targets both public and private investments more directly by providing sophisticated facilities to support project preparation, development and assessment in public and private partnership (PPP) in health and education sector. It also seeks to simply the licensing and registration procedure for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ (MSMEs).