West Bengal budget mainly emphasises in social sector

Minister of State (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya presented the state annual budget in the West Bengal State Assembly on February15, 2023.

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

This is her second budget presentation. She presented a budget of ₹3.39 lakh crore for FY 2023-24. She focussed on farmers, women, the weak tea sector, and some infrastructure areas. Bhattacharya projected the state GDP growth as 8.4% and the growth rate of industry as 7.8% in the continuing FY 2022-23.

The state is already faced with an outstanding debt of ₹ 5.86 lakh crore, according to reports. In March 2022, the debt was ₹ 5.28 lakh crore with a fiscal deficit of ₹ 53,431.76 crore and a revenue deficit of ₹ 32,963.60 crore. At the same time, the government is optimistic about the collection from state excise. It is reportedly known that for the fiscal ending on March 31, the target of state collection of excise duty would be ₹ 16,500 crore. The excise collections had already crossed ₹13,500 crore as of January 31. Budget deficit in FY 202324 may be 3.83% of GDP which is not very alarming in this economic situation.