West Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta on Saturday, 25 July tabled 28 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reports in the state Legislative Assembly — reports covering state income and expenditure between 2021 and 2025 that the previous Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) government had never placed before the House. The tabling, done on the final day of the extended budget session, marks a pointed political and constitutional statement by the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.

What Was Tabled and Why It Matters

The 28 CAG reports span critical areas of public governance, including Panchayati Raj institutions, public health infrastructure, land management in tribal areas, Anganwadi and ICDS services, water pollution prevention, and the state's education campaign. Multiple audit reports on public sector undertakings and the finance department were also placed on record.

Speaking on the floor of the House after tabling the documents, Dasgupta called the non-presentation a serious constitutional failure. 'The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India have constitutional importance in the Constitution. It is the responsibility of all governments to table such reports on the floor of the House in the Legislative Assembly. I am surprised why these reports were not tabled for some known and unknown reasons during the last few years,' he said.

The Debt Burden Argument

Dasgupta linked the withheld audit findings directly to West Bengal's fiscal condition, stating that a reading of the 28 CAG reports would explain why the state is now carrying an accumulated debt burden of more than ₹8,00,000 crore — a liability he said the current BJP government has inherited. The Finance Minister indicated that detailed legislative discussions on the reports are forthcoming, and called for a dedicated special session of the Assembly to examine them.

'We would like to have an entire special session of the House in the near future when these CAG reports will be discussed. This is extremely crucial,' Dasgupta added.

MSME Data Discrepancy Highlighted

Dasgupta also used the occasion to flag what he described as a significant misrepresentation of the MSME sector under the previous TMC administration. According to him, the earlier government had claimed 93 lakh MSMEs in West Bengal. However, only 22 lakh MSMEs were found to be registered on the Udyam portal. Of those, 4.5 lakh PAN cards reportedly do not exist — and ultimately, only 99,000 MSMEs are actually functional in the state.

'This is why businessmen were deserting West Bengal,' Dasgupta said, framing the MSME data gap as emblematic of broader governance failures under the TMC's tenure.

Political Context

The BJP's decision to table all 28 reports at once — rather than staggered across sessions — appears calibrated for maximum political impact. CAG reports, mandated under Article 151 of the Constitution, must be laid before the state legislature; failure to do so is widely regarded as a breach of legislative accountability. This is not the first time a newly elected government in India has used inherited audit backlogs to frame the conduct of a predecessor, but the sheer volume of withheld reports — covering a four-year period — lends the charge unusual weight. The TMC, now in opposition in West Bengal, has not yet formally responded to the allegations as of the time of tabling.