The CPM on Friday rolled out numbers to describe the state budget presented in the Assembly on Wednesday as a “travesty of lies” and a dossier to hide the political and economic degradation of Bengal by claiming that the economy was on a path of revival.

“We have seen that the (economic) reality is nowhere near of what is being said and projected in the budget. But the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) and finance minister (Chandrima Bhattacharya) are making claims in the budget that are not supported by available statistics,” CPM state secretary Md Salim said while addressing reporters in Calcutta on Friday.

To depict the state of Bengal’s poor economic affairs, Salim came up with figures to show the real gap between what the budget claims and the reality.

“The previous budget had projected a growth rate of 7.6 per cent for 2023-24 but in reality, the figure is 6.1 per cent. The government in its budget this year has acknowledged that last year’s projected figures were inflated. In this year’s budget, the government’s projected growth rate is 6.8 per cent. In next year’s budget the real figures would surely be lower,” the CPM state secretary said.

Drawing parallels with the Narendra Modi government, Salim said the Trinamool government almost mirrored the Centre when it came to “selling a false narrative about the growth rate”.

“In this year’s budget, the Narendra Modi government has brought down the growth rate for the 2023-2024 from the projected 8.3 per cent to 6.4 per cent. Both the state and central governments, the BJP and the Trinamool are indulging in a jugglery with figures to weave a travesty of lies,” the former CPM MP said.

Reeling out statistics related to the debt-to-gross state domestic product ratio, Salim said while Bengal’s loan burden was rising, the rate of economic growth was on the decline. Drawing up a comparative chart with statistics sourced from the Medium Term Fiscal Policy State and Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement for the year 2025-26, finance department, government of West Bengal, Salim said while the debt-to-GSDP ratio was 42.2 per cent in 2020-21, in 2024-25 fiscal it had dropped to 38.9 per cent.

Furthering his accusation that the Mamata Banerjee government was peddling lies, he said the claim made in the budget that Bengal’s economic growth rate was higher than the national average was not true.

“In the 12 years from 2012-13 to 2023-24, while India grew at six per cent, Bengal’s rate was 4.7 per cent,” he said.

The Left leader was critical of the Mamata government’s economic performance and said that Bengal was lagging behind every state in all sectors — industry, agriculture and services.

“With such a state of economic affairs, for Mamata Banerjee to claim that the state was on the path of economic revival is ridiculous,” Salim said.

Responding to the CPM’s criticism, Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said: “Such claims can only come from a mentally depressed political party like the CPM in Bengal. As the people of Bengal did not consider them as a political force, they are making such baseless claims.”