This will be preceded by a meeting of a Trinamul Congress parliamentary delegation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Bengal, Kerala and Punjab have been officially dubbed debt-stressed states. A panel headed by expenditure secretary Sumit Bose has been tasked to look into the problems of all three states.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had last week said she would like the issue to be resolved in 15 days.
The panel’s meeting with the officials is not expected to resolve the issue immediately but it is likely to be a step forward. The finance ministry wants commitments from states on raising resources through utility charges and reducing borrowings.
Bengal’s “own resources” — the difference between tax revenues and current or revenue expenses (salaries, interest, administrative costs) — was a negative Rs 12,897 crore last year and is projected to be a negative Rs 10,095 crore in the current financial year.
The figures mean that the state spent and plans to spend much more on revenue expenses than it could or will raise by way of taxes.