Calcutta, Dec. 29: Do as we say, don’t do as we do — that seems to be the message from the Left. A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) study reveals that Bengal’s CPM-led government isn’t implementing policies the Left wants the Centre to adopt.

Stepping up expenditure on social sectors, like health and primary education, has been a long-standing demand of the Left in Delhi. But, according to an RBI publication (State Finances: A Study of Budgets, 2006-07), the percentage of Bengal’s total expenses on these areas fell to 29.2 per cent in 2005-06 from 46.9 per cent in 1990-91.

All cash-strapped state governments have spent less on health, education, rural development and food storage in the past 15 years, but the drop in Bengal is among the sharpest.

In absolute terms, the amount of money spent has gone up, but it is less still less than that in Kerala, ruled by the Left in some of those 15 years. Even as a percentage, Kerala has kept its social sector expenses at over 40 per cent.

The decline in the percentage of spending on health and education — the most important areas — has been the steepest between 2001-01 and 2005-06. It’s hardly surprising then that 14 per cent of city children below 15 are illiterate in Bengal — among the highest. Only Rajasthan, with 16 per cent, and Bihar, with 15 per cent, are worse off.

The RBI report sounds a warning on another problem — the dwindling expenses on assets like irrigation facilities and roads. This is called asset creation.

The report says the Bengal government’s capital outlay as percentage of gross state domestic product (GSDP) is among the lowest. “This means the government is not creating assets and it’s a disturbing trend,” said an economist. Gross state domestic product is the value of goods and services produced in a state in a year.

According to the study, the capital outlay to GSDP ratio in Bengal averaged 0.6 between 2002-03 and 2004-05. It improved marginally, to 0.8 per cent, the following year.

On revenue mobilisation — an area where the Left wants the Centre to improve — Bengal’s performance has been poor. Even the introduction of value-added tax hasn’t helped. The state’s revenue as a percentage of GSDP was among the lowest at 4.6 per cent between 2002-03 and 2004-05, before improving to 4.9 per cent a year later.

Bengal’s deficits and indebtedness have also deepened. “A few states, such as Kerala and Bengal, have been poor performers in terms of almost all the fiscal indicators. Kerala, however, is relatively better placed in terms of social sector expenditure,” says the report.

But deficits don’t bother the Left, which opposes the fiscal responsibility legislation at the Centre. That might be an economist’s bugbear, but parties that don’t tire of showing their concern for the poor might find it hard to explain why their governments can’t give social sectors more.