While presenting the financial bill in the assembly, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Finance Minister of West Bengal government, has recently announced that the decided that armers will not have to pay any income tax on agricultural products for the next two financial years. Along with this, the state government has also announced that they will withdraw the two types of cesses on raw tea leaves for the time period of next two years. She said that the current exemption period for agricultural income tax will ends on March 31.
She added that in order to assist those who pay sales tax, the state government has implemented a “detailed and convenient” plan to address problems with tax arrears. Chandrima Bhattacharya also stated that the income tax exemption on agricultural products would be maintained without the imposition of new taxes. According to official sources, the West Bengal government has also resolved to fill thousands of openings in other sectors, including agriculture and minorities.
The West Bengal Budget presented by the finance minister of the state, has also widened the ambit of social welfare schemes for the people. One of them is “Lakshmi Bhandar”, which will provide the death benefits for fishermen, financial assistance for micro-enterprise and allocated Rs 3000 crore for rural road connectivity, the amount of Rs 3000 crore has been allocated for the rural road connectivity, along with repair of the roads in the urban areas of the state.
The total budget presented was for Rs 3,39,162 crore. The “Lakshmi Bhandar” scheme, which distributes monetary incentives to 1.88 crore women beneficiaries between the ages of 25 and 60, was coupled in the budget with an old age pension programme after the recipients reach retirement age. Bhattacharya claimed that the scheme will empower the women in the state.
For the fisherman of the state, will have access to the “Matsyajeebi Bandhu (death benefit) scheme,” which will give their dependent families a one-time award of 2 lakh in the event of an unexpected death. Rs 30 crore has been allotted by the state government under the programme.
Bhattacharya during the even also launched a new programme called the “Bhavishyat credit card” for young people to offer financial support in the form of loans to establish a business. Rs 350 crore has been allotted for the scheme. “With this programme, two lakh young people between the ages of 18 and 45 would receive financial support in the form of bank loans up to five lakh rupees for starting microbusinesses and generating employment possibilities,” she added.
Despite the Government withholding money and the State government facing a financial crisis, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called the budget “a job-oriented Budget” and said that thousands of people are likely to find employment as a result of the proposed programmes.
Providing relief to the tea industry, for the period of two years, from 2023–2024 and 2024–2025, the Budget exempted the tea business from paying the rural employment cess, education cess, and agricultural income tax. In a statement praising the decision, the Indian Tea Association stated that the exclusions would bring relief for an industry experiencing severe financial strain. The State Government also requested to prolong by a further six months, until September 30, 2023, the 2 percent Stamp Duty Refund and 10 percent Circle Rate Refund, which were effective through March 31, 2023.
For 2023-24, Rs 34036 crore has been allocated in capital expenditure. The State government had to scale down capital expenditure from Rs 33144.37 crore in the last budget to Rs 21468.37 crore, revised for 2022-23.
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