West Bengal government presented budget for FY22, promised more donations

After coming to power in West Bengal for the third time in a row, the Mamata Banerjee-led government presented its first budget, promising more help for different sections of the people. State Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee presented a budget of Rs 3.08 lakh crore in the assembly for the financial year 2021-2022 with the announcement of public beneficiary schemes like Lakshmi Bhandar, student credit card and road tax waiver on passenger transport vehicles.

Chatterjee, who held a vote-on-account in the House in February due to the health condition of state Finance Minister Amit Mitra, while presenting the budget, said the government has decided to extend the one-time exemption of motor vehicle tax. The period from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021.

The government has also proposed to reduce the stamp duty for registration of instruments by 2 per cent, while the circle rate has been cut by 10 per cent.

Chatterjee presented the budget because Finance Minister Amit Mitra is unwell.
Speaking on the state’s economic condition, Chatterjee said, the economy of our state has grown steadily in the last 10 years. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which was Rs 4,60,959 crore in 2010-2011, increased to Rs 13, 54,518 crore in 2019-20, showing a 2.94-fold increase. Capital expenditure has increased 7.2 times from Rs 2,225 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 18,170 crore in 2020-21.

He said, between 2010-11 and 2020-21, spending in the social sector increased by 10.11 times. Similarly, the agriculture and allied services sector grew by 10.50 times and the physical infrastructure sector by 5.58 times.

He said, we are proud to say that India’s GDP growth in 2020-21 fell to -7.7 percent, while Bengal’s GDP registered a positive growth of 1.2 percent.