Bengal budget: 8.4% growth in GSDP projected

Kolkata, Feb 15,2023: West Bengal’s Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Wednesday presented a Rs 3,39,162 crore budget for financial year 2023-24, projecting a gross state domestic product (GSDP) growth of 8.41 per cent.

The significant announcement in the budget was regarding payment of additional three per cent dearness allowances for the current and retired state government employees.

However, the state government employees are not at all happy over the announcement. State Government Employees’ Council General Secretary Sanket Chakraborty said even after this, the gap of the state government employees with that of their counterparts in the Union government remains 32 per cent. “This is nothing but eyewash,” he said.

In the budget proposal for 2023-24, there was a proposal for encouraging the startups, as Bhattacharya announced a new credit card scheme for those in the age bracket 18 to 45 years. “Under this scheme, the youths will be eligible for loans up to Rs 5,00,000 for starting their own business. The state government will provide margin money up to 10 per cent and guarantee up to 15 per cent of the loan amount,” she said. The state government has earmarked Rs 350 crore for the scheme.

As expected, the budget proposals included a host of welfare schemes with focus on women.

“Currently, women in West Bengal in the age bracket of 25 and 60 years are entitled for monthly payment ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 under the Lokkhir Bhandar scheme. Now after the women cross 60 years of age, they will be automatically entitled for old- age allowance which will be Rs 1,000 per month,” Bhattacharya said.

At the same time, she also announced a special compensation for the fishermen community in the state, where in case of untimely death of any fisherman in the age bracket of 18 and 45 years, his family will be entitled for a one- time compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the state government.

Her budget proposal has some good news regarding development of the rural road network in the state, as she announced a special scheme for constructing 11,500 km of new rural roads with an allocation of Rs 3,000 crore.

At the same time, Bhattacharya said that from the next financial year, the local area development fund for the MLAs will be increased to Rs 70 lakh for each legislator from the current figure of Rs 60 lakh.

She claimed that during 2022-23, the rate of goods & services tax return in the state has increased to 95 percent from 70 per cent, with the incremental growth in collection being at 24.44 per cent. “This rate is much higher than the national average,” she said.