Bengal has spent Rs 2,700cr on Covid so far; and received just Rs 200cr - State faces uphill battle in raising funds for coronavirus fight

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |   08.09.20 :  The Mamata Banerjee government has spent nearly Rs 2,700 crore to battle the spread of Covid-19 in the state so far while it received only about Rs 200 crore from the Centre to combat the pandemic, sources at Nabanna said.

The lack of support from the Centre has left the top brass of the government in a spot considering the battle might be a prolonged one and arranging funds from the state’s own coffers is going to be easier said than done.

“Initially, we had to spend heavily to develop infrastructure to fight against the spread of Covid-19. Now, we are spending something between Rs 125 crore and Rs 130 crore every month on Covid-related activities. The problem is that we are not getting enough support from the Centre,”a senior Nabanna official told The Telegraph.

According to sources, the state government is spending heavily these days on conducting tests for suspected Covid patients as the state needs to pay about Rs 300 to buy each testing kit.

Moreover, the state needs to spend handsomely for carrying out the tests that includes hiring of more technicians, data entry operators, mobilisation of manpower and transportation.

“The kits are being supplied by the ICMR but the state needs to pay for this. As we need to arrange several facilities for conducting tests across the state, each test costs around Rs 800 to 900... We are conducting close to 50,000 tests per day and the outgo under this head is huge,” said another official.

This apart, the state government is spending heavily for requisitioning private hospitals to treat Covid patients. According to a rough estimate by the health department, the state is spending about Rs 7 crore every month for this purpose.

“Besides, there are huge expenditures, about Rs 50 crore, to provide free treatment to the Covid patients, running safe homes, providing free ambulance service across the state, procurement of equipment and developing Covid facilities in new hospitals. The state needs support from the Centre as its own revenue generation has shrunk since the nationwide lockdown imposed in March this year,” said an official.

Sources also said that initially the state had to incur huge expenditure as it developed Covid treatment facilities at major government hospitals. Besides, the state had to deal with a huge influx of migrant labourers.

“The state made all arrangements for safe return of migrants from other states at free of cost. It had also provided financial support to the migrant labourers at the initial stage. Initially, the state spent nearly Rs 2,000 crore in the first two months,” said a source.

The sources said the state government was worried because it did not get enough central support to fight against the pandemic.

“Under the national health mission, the state received only about Rs 200 crore whereas some states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have received more funds, something about Rs 400 crore each,” said a Nabanna official.

The problem for the state has doubled, sources said, after the Centre failed to clear dues of nearly Rs 4,100 crore under the GST compensation head.