The new West Bengal government, saddled with a bill payment arrear of Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) in addition to a debt burden of Rs 2,03,500 crore (Rs 2,035 billion) by the erstwhile Left Front regime, on Wednesday withdrew the embargo on payment of bills from the treasury.
"We have started making payments of bills from the treasury from today," Finance Minister Amit Mitra said after withdrawal of the embargo imposed by the Left Front government since November last year.
The state government as an interim measure would raise Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) from market borrowings and Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion)
as loan from small savings, Mitra told reporters at the state secretariat.
The state government will work with the Centre to draw up a financial package for West Bengal shortly, he said.
