Kolkata, Feb 15 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and industrialist Shishir Bajoria on Wednesday dubbed the state budget as something prepared in haste “while running on a treadmill” which has nothing to bring progress to the state.
Ahead of panchayat elections, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government on Wednesday presented a Rs 3.39-lakh crore budget for 2023-24, focusing on farmers, an ailing tea sector, the state’s potential as a logistics hub and budding entrepreneurs.
In an interview with PTI video, Bajoria said the budget has no direction for employment or revenue generation.
“The state budget was prepared by the hon’ble chief minister (as if) while doing her morning treadmill. For 30 minutes, she dictated the budget to the state finance minister. When you are on the treadmill, you keep running in the same spot,” Bajoria said.
The BJP leader said the budget broke many records as the finance minister announced a 3 per cent dearness allowance which was not art of the budget.
“This budget broke many records. After the finance minister has tabled the budget, the Speaker asks the Chief Minister whether she wants to make any intervention. And she intervened.
“The other record broken was when the finance minister was at the end of tabling the budget, a chit was given to her, and she announced the three per cent dearness allowance. This was not part of the budget document,” he claimed.
West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya declared an additional dearness allowance of 3 per cent for state government employees, including teachers and pensioners.
When asked whether this budget has been placed keeping in mind the upcoming rural polls in the state, he said, “There is a huge budgetary deficit …virtually 20 per cent of the budget comes from loans … there is no revenue source, as there is no industry,” he said.
Though the budget at Rs 3.39 lakh crore represents a 5.6 per cent increase in size over last year’s budget making it Bengal’s biggest budget in terms of the sheer money being spent, the state’s debt is also rising – estimated at Rs 5.86 lakh crore for the 2022-23 fiscal.
The state’s high cost market borrowing to fund the budget went up by approximately 5 per cent to Rs 78,946 crore.
Tax revenues, however, was buoyant as the state’s economy seems to have recovered post-Covid and grew to Rs 88,595 crore, a nearly 11.5-per cent increase over last fiscal.
Bajoria, a noted industrialist and close to the CPI(M), before he joined the BJP, said Bengal’s development centred around doles and charged there were “more than 50 schemes” to give out doles.
He also charged that the TMC party will try and win the panchayat polls by stalling rivals from filing nomination. “More than 30 per cent of panchayat seats were won without contest last time,” the politician pointed out. PTI JRC PNT JRC JRC
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.