West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya presented the state budget 2023-24 during the budget session of the state assembly in Kolkata on Wednesday. , Photo Credit: ANI
With an eye on the upcoming panchayat elections, the West Bengal government’s Budget 2023-24 on Wednesday widened the scope of social welfare schemes like Laxmi Bhandar, added a new scheme providing death benefit for fishermen, micro enterprises Promised financial assistance and allocated Rs 3000 crore for rural road connectivity and repair of urban roads in the state.
Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya presented a budget of Rs 3,39,162 crore and said the state’s economy is expected to grow 8.41% more than the estimated national growth rate in the current financial year.
Another major budget announcement was the 3% Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for state government employees. While there was no reference to the DA hike in the budget document, Ms Bhattacharya made the announcement in the state assembly after receiving a handwritten note from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while presenting the document. A section of state government employees are protesting demanding DA at par with central government employees and have threatened not to participate in the panchayat polls if their demands are not met.
The budget is linked to the Lakshmi Bhandar Yojana, where cash incentives are given to 1.88 crore women beneficiaries aged 25 to 60 years old age pension scheme when the beneficiaries turn 60 years old. Talking to reporters, Ms. Bhattacharya said that this step will empower women. Which has been the identity of the Trinamool Congress government.
The state government has launched the ‘Rastashri’ project to construct new roads to refurbish the existing ones. A total of 11,500 km of rural roads have been constructed under the project and the total allocation for the scheme is around Rs 3000 crore.
The minister also said that the upcoming West Bengal Logistics Policy, 2023, will streamline the logistics sector and take advantage of the state’s strategic location at the crossroads of South Asia and ASEAN countries to make it an ideal location for large-scale logistics hubs .
For fishermen in the state, the budget announced the ‘Matsyajibi Bandhu (Death Benefit) Scheme’, which will provide a one-time grant of ₹2 lakh to the dependent family due to their untimely demise. The state government has allocated Rs 30 crore for the scheme.
push for employment
Ms. Bhattacharya in her budget speech announced a new scheme ‘Bhavishya Credit Card’ to provide financial assistance in the form of loans for youth to start businesses and allocated ₹350 crore for the scheme. Under this scheme, two lakh youth in the age group of 18-45 years will be provided financial assistance of up to ₹5 lakh through banks to set up micro-enterprises and generate employment opportunities. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the budget as an “employment-oriented budget” and said that lakhs of people are likely to get employment due to the schemes announced despite the Centre’s non-release of funds and the state government’s paucity of funds.
Giving relief to the tea industry, provision has been made in the budget for exemption on payment of Rural Employment Cess, Education Cess as well as Agricultural Income Tax for two years i.e. 2023-24 and 2024-25. The acute financial stress and relaxation given will bring relief,” said a statement from the Tea Association of India welcoming the move. The state government also proposed to extend 2% exemption on stamp duty and 10% exemption on circle rate of land/property, which was valid till March 31, 2023, for six months till September 30, 2023.
high fiscal deficit
For 2023-24, capital expenditure of ₹34036.23 crore has been allocated in the budget; The state government had to reduce the capital expenditure from ₹33144.37 crore in the previous budget to ₹21468.37 crore (revised for 2022-23). The budget document has estimated a fiscal deficit of Rs 65,838.92 crore for the year 2023-24, while the same figure for 2022-23 (revised) is Rs 61,901.27 crore. The revenue deficit for the year 2022-23 also increased from ₹28,279.67 crore to ₹39,663.26 crore. The revenue deficit for the budget 2023-24 has been estimated at Rs 30,924.09 crore.
“The WB 2023-24 budget is a futile exercise trying to plug too many loopholes. This budget will neither fulfill the aspirations of the common people nor remove unemployment. As far as the mounting fiscal deficit is concerned, this government’s best bet is to hope that the next BJP government will tackle it.