Kolkata: Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra on Monday announced an array of new welfare schemes and subsidies in the second Trinamool Congress government's last full-budget before the crucial 2021 Assembly polls. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee sat behind him in the assembly when the budget was placed.
Resorting to populism and giving a fresh impetus to employment generation, it announced the setting up of 100 MSME parks in the state in the next three years and proposed free electricity to those with quarterly consumption of up to 75 units in its budget.
Presenting a Rs 2, 55, 677 crore budget that marked an 18 per cent rise in planned expenditure over last year, Mitra offered new subsidies and schemes for all sections, starting from unemployed youths and backward classes to homeless tea garden workers. He said unemployment rate in Bengal was reduced by 40 per cent.
The budget made an allocation of Rs 5,150 crore for 2020-21 primarily targeting the social sectors and also for creating employment in the MSMEs.
Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "We have presented a people's Budget without having to sell any of the state PSUs. Simultaneously, we've spread smiles across communities. The Centre can, for a change, help make these smiles broader by working with the States. We'll let the people decide which Budget is better."
In his budget speech, the state Finance minister claimed that while the country is going down on various economic indices, Bengal is surging forward in terms of GSDP growth and on other yardsticks. He added that the government has made allocations for opening up of new universities, welfare for the aged belonging to SC and ST categories, workers in the unorganised sector, MSME sector, assistance to the unemployed youth, tea garden workers, besides for providing free electricity to the poor and assistance for getting government services.
Mitra said in the current financial year, the state has been able to generate 9.11 lakh employment opportunities.
For 2020-21, the state government has projected tax revenue receipts of Rs 70,807 crore against the revised estimate of Rs 65,806 crore in 2019-20.
He also mentioned in his speech that the state already faces a loan burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore.
Among the major announcements were a Rs 500 crore allocation for social security for 1.5 crore backward class families and Rs 2500 crore for a monthly old-age pension of Rs 1000 each for 21 lakh members of the scheduled caste communities. Mitra announced another Rs 500 crore for similar schemes for members of the scheduled tribes.
The budget includes Rs 100 crore towards support for new medium and small industries and Rs 500 crore towards loan and subsidies to be offered to unemployed youths for setting up projects costing up to Rs 2 lakh.
Another major announcement is a provident fund scheme for 1.5 crore families of workers in the unorganised sector and will cost the exchequer Rs 500 crore.
Mitra also announced Rs 500 crore for setting up houses for permanent workers of tea gardens in North Bengal. "There are about three lakh workers in 370 tea gardens," Mitra said.
He also announced that families that consume less than 75 units of electricity in three months will not have to pay their power bills. This will cost the state Rs 200 crore, he said.
Mitra also announced separate universities for SCs, STs, OBCs and Hindi-speaking people, inviting sharp criticism from the Opposition.
"Economic growth is meaningless without employment. While the unemployment rate in the country is on the rise, Bengal has created 9.11 lakh jobs in 2019-2020," said Mitra while ending his speech by reciting a few lines from a poem written by the Chief Minister.