Kolkata: With less than five months remaining for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, the state government has begun preparations for the interim budget session, a senior official at the state secretariat said on Saturday.
Although the dates for the budget session of the state Assembly have not yet been announced, it is traditionally held in February.
In this context, Nabanna has issued a series of guidelines to various state departments to initiate preparations, with the budget session likely to be convened in the first or second week of February. It is learnt that several departments have already begun groundwork related to the budget exercise.
State Finance Secretary Prabhat Kumar Mishra has issued a directive instructing state government-owned commercial and semi-commercial entities to submit their accounts for the past three financial years as part of the preparatory process for the 2026–27 budget publication. The directive has been sent to the principal secretaries of all departments, asking them to expedite the budget-related work.
The departments have been instructed to take necessary steps to ensure the timely submission of financial statements of all public sector undertakings and corporations under their administrative control. These details are to be included in the consolidated list prepared in accordance with the prescribed budget publication guidelines.
The notification also specifies a deadline for completing the compilation of the 2026–27 budget publication through the state’s designated online portal. All information related to the budget publication process must be collected and submitted by December 24.
As per the guidelines, all relevant data must be uploaded to the Finance Department’s portal. Principal secretaries of all departments have been directed to treat the matter as extremely urgent.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly instructed officials during administrative review meetings that ongoing development work should not be hampered by activities related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. She has emphasised that the message of development must reach every household ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
In line with these directions, the state secretariat has now reiterated that departments must ensure timely uploading of all necessary information related to the upcoming budget session on the Finance Department’s portal.
(IANS)
