West Bengal’s minister of state for finance (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya presented the state Budget 2023-24 in the Assembly, on Wednesday. She announced that the state government has hiked the dearness allowance (DA) for its government employees.
“DA is hiked by 3 per cent. It will be implemented from March,” she informed.
During the Budget speech she also informed that the annual fund allocation for MLAs for local area development works also increased.
“The annual fund allocation for MLAs for local area development works Under Vidhayak Elaka Unnayan Praklp increased from Rs 60 lakhs to Rs 70 lakhs for the next financial year,” she said, reported news agency ANI.
There is also something for government registered fishermen in the state.
“One-time financial assistance of Rs 2 lakhs will be given to dependent family members of a govt registered fisherman in case of death, under the Matsyajeebi Bandhu scheme,” said the finance minister.
The FM added that for 2023-24 and 2024-25, agricultural income tax on tea gardens will be waived. In order to strengthen connectivity, FM Bhattacharya announced that 12,500 km of rural roads will be constructed. It will cost Rs 3,000 crores.
There is also good news for the startup sector as the minister announced a “Rs 350-cr startup fund to extend up to Rs 5 lakh each to young entrepreneurs”.
It is pertinent to mention here that till March 2023, the West Bengal government had announced the extension of the stamp duty rebate. In this Budget, this rebate has been further extended till 30th September 2023.
There is also welcoming news for the fairer sex as 1.88 crore women will be included in the Lakshmi Bhandar project.
Bhattacharya tabled her second Budget in the West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday. For 2023-24, the CM Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government presented a Rs 3.39-lakh crore Bengal Budget.