Bengal govt presents Budget for FY22, promises more doles

Kolkata, July 7 Promising more doles for different sections of people, the Mamata Banerjee-led West bengal government placed its first Budget on Wednesday after coming to power for in the state for a third straight time.

With the announcement of mass beneficiary schemes like 'Lakshmi Bhandar', 'Student Credit Card' and waiving road tax on passenger transport vehicles, the state's Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee tabled the Rs 3.08 lakh crore Budget in the Assembly for FY 2021-2022.

Presenting the Budget, Chatterjee, who had placed the vote-on-account in the House in February because of the health condition of state Finance Minister Amit Mitra, said the government has decided to extend the one-time exemption of motor vehicle tax for the period starting July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

The government has also proposed to reduce stamp duty by 2 per cent for registration of deeds, while the circle rate has been slashed by 10 per cent.

Chatterjee presented the Budget as Finance Minister Amit Mitra is indisposed due to ill health.

Speaking on the economic condition of the state, Chatterjee said, "Our state's economy has grown steadily in the last 10 years. Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which was Rs 4,60,959 crore in 2010-2011, increased to Rs 13,54,518 crore in 2019-20, marking a 2.94 times increase. Capital expenditure has gone up 7.2 times from Rs 2,225 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 18,170 crore in 2020-21.

"Expenditure in the social sector increased 10.11 times between 2010-11 and 2020-21. Similarly, in the agriculture and allied service sector, the increase was 10.50 times and in the physical infrastructure sector it was 5.58 times," he said.

"We are proud to say that while the growth of India's GDP dipped to -7.7 per cent in 2020-21, Bengal's GDP clocked a positive 1.2 per cent growth," he added.

Criticising the Central government for its 'anti-people' schemes, Chatterjee said, "Auto fuel prices were raised eight times since May 4. These hikes also fuelled inflation in the country. Cost of items of daily use in the households have risen massively. Cooking oil prices have shot up by 30.8 per cent, eggs by 15.2 per cent, fruits by 12 per cent and health related products in the middle of the Covid pandemic by 8.44 per cent.

"The Central government had collected a staggering 3.71 1akh crore revenue from oil and petroleum products in 2020-21 in the midst of Covid. In fact, in the last six years of the BJP government at the Centre, the government of India's tax collection from oil and petroleum products jumped by a phenomenal 370 per cent."

Alleging that the Central government is not giving its due to the state, Chatterjee said, "The Centre is also surreptitiously increasing the cess component to deny the states their share in taxes - a direct violation of the spirit of co-operative federalism. Here I may mention that the government of West Bengal has voluntarily given a rebate to both petrol and diesel as a token of our empathy for the common people."

"We believe that the people's welfare programmes of our government along with the multitudes of infrastructure development initiatives will help in further improving the lives of our people and bringing greater all-round development for the state. We are also optimistic that we will be able to create 1.5 crore new employment opportunities in the next five years as committed in the interim Budget presented on February 5, 2021." Chatterjee said.

He further said, "Our government shall soon launch the West Bengal basic income scheme for women members of each household called 'Lakshmir Bhandar'. This scheme envisages a monthly support of Rs 1,000 for women members of each SC/ST household and Rs 500 for general category women. The main objective of the scheme is to provide minimum financial support to the women in each household and empower them.

"Our government has launched a Student Credit Card scheme to help students further their education with the help of low-interest loans of up to Rs 10 lakh. The student will be required to pay only 4 per cent interest and the rest will be borne by the state government through subvention," he said.

Claiming that the new 'Krishak Bandhu' scheme will benefit 62 lakh farmers, Chatterjee said, "The annual financial assistance to each farmer under the Krishak Bandhu scheme has been doubled from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per acre with maximum of Rs 10,000 for more than 1 acre land. Farmers with less than 1 acre land, including 'bargadars', will get the grant on a pro-rata basis with a minimum assistance of Rs 4,000, instead of Rs 2,000."

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