Overview
- The BJP‑led state government placed 28 Comptroller and Auditor General volumes covering 2020‑21 to 2024‑25 in the Assembly on Saturday, July 25, fulfilling a lapse the new administration says occurred under the previous TMC rule.
- The 2024‑25 finance audit flags a revenue deficit of roughly Rs 39,727 crore and a fiscal shortfall in the tens of thousands of crores, describing multi‑year revenue deficits and large unspent allocations that worsened West Bengal’s fiscal position.
- A compliance audit of post‑Cyclone Amphan relief finds exaggerated damage claims, multiple payments to beneficiaries and Rs 18.07 crore of identifiable excess disbursements, with similar performance gaps noted across health, school and local‑body programmes.
- The state has announced a special Assembly session to debate the findings and said it will ask the governor for sanction to register FIRs where the audits indicate graft, with formal investigations and prosecutions still to be initiated.
- The CAG is the constitutionally mandated auditor whose reports are meant to be tabled before legislatures, and these disclosures could sharpen legislative scrutiny of debt, spending and programme delivery while intensifying the political dispute between the BJP and TMC.