Kolkata: The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will commence on June 18, and the full budget by the finance minister of the first BJP-led state government since Independence will be presented on June 22, announced the new Speaker of the House, Rathindra Bose at a special session of the House on Friday, where Bose took oath as the Speaker of the House.
As the full budget is scheduled to be presented on June 22, it is expected that the new cabinet led by the ninth West Bengal Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, will announce the name of the new finance minister by then.
On February 5 this year, former West Bengal Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge), Chandrima Bhattacharya, in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet, presented the interim (vote on accounts) budget on the floor of the state Assembly.
The full budget could not be presented in view of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, which were conducted in April, and the results were announced on May 4.
Meanwhile, instructions have been received from the Chief Minister’s Office to all the departmental secretaries to start preparations for the state budget.
“The full budget to be presented next month will be based on the promises made by the current ruling party in the state in their election manifesto before the Assembly polls. The focus of the budget will be to find alternative avenues for the state’s own tax revenue generation, ease the massive pressure of huge accumulated debt, bridle the skyrocketing non-plan recurring expenditure and improve spending on capital expenditure,” an insider from the state finance department with vast experience in budget preparations said.
The state budget will be presented amid an extremely difficult situation of the state exchequer trapped between the state excise department’s own tax revenue, huge accumulated debt to the tune of over Rs 7,00,000 crore and skyrocketing non-plan recurring expenditure.
(IANS)
