West Bengal’s Minister of State for Finance (Independent Charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya is set to present the state budget for the financial year 2023-24 in the Assembly on February 15.
As per the indications so far, it is almost certain that West Bengal will not only meet its target of state excise duty collection for the financial year ending March 31, 2023, but also exceed it. As per the budget estimates for the financial year ending March 31, 2023, the state excise duty collection was targeted at Rs 16,500 crore and as per excise department records, the collection under this head is expected to cross Rs 13,500 crore by January 31, 2023. Had done
“We can now set much higher state excise revenue collections in the budget estimates for the financial year 2023-24, as liquor prices were hiked in January this year,” said a senior finance department official. to be named.
The question is whether the state government will achieve its targeted collection of the state’s own tax revenue when it crosses its target of excise duty collection, where excise duty is one of the 12 components. As per the budget estimates for 2022-23, the state government has set a target of collecting Rs 79,346 crore as state tax revenue.
Apart from excise, there is another proposal this time to get enough money for the exchequer. The state government is planning to change land holding laws to convert leased land into owned land. Under the change, the state government will give an option to the parties to whom they have leased the land on long-term basis, to buy the land at the prevailing market rates where the land is located.
“Normally, when the state government gives land on lease to any party, the lease amount is much less than the market value of the land. So now, by selling the same land at the market rate, the state government will be able to get enough money for the exchequer, which can be used for various welfare and development projects,” said an official.
Economists believe that although it is an effective way of getting money for the exchequer, it will not help the state government to earn or improve its tax revenue.
“By selling a piece of land, the state government will get a lump sum fund for its coffers. But if the same land could be used for setting up a large industry, the tax revenue generated from that industry would be year after year. Selling assets to meet expenses is not healthy economics. Rather the goal should always be to use the asset for recurring revenue generation. In fact it seems that the policies of the central government and the state government on this front are identical, selling state assets to meet regular government expenditure,” said Shantanu Basu, professor of economics.
Meanwhile, sources in the Finance Department said that some policies may be announced in this budget speech to encourage start-ups and manufacturing sector.
While encouraging start-ups will be a good initiative from the state government, according to economist PK Mukhopadhyay, it is the right time to focus on attracting big-ticket investments in both the manufacturing and service sectors. “But what is needed for the manufacturing sector is a change in the state government’s land policy where it has come out of its stated stand of no role for the state in purchasing land for industry. In view of the fragmented nature of land holding, no industrialist would be interested in purchasing land from individual owners, especially when the requirement of land is large at one go. The services sector, especially the information technology and IT-enabled services sector, will find it difficult for the state government to attract large investments unless it backs down from its stand of not allowing new special economic zones in the state Is. Said.
Along with this, all eyes will also be on how much the estimated accumulated debt of the state government will be by the end of the next financial year 2023-24. As per the budget estimates for the financial year 2022-23, the total accumulated debt of the state will increase to Rs 5,86,438.05 crore by March 31, 2023, from Rs 5,28,833.05 crore as per the revised estimates of 2022-23. , During the financial year ended March 21, 2011, which was the last financial year under the previous Left Front regime, West Bengal’s accumulated debt stood at around Rs 1,90,000 crore.
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Source: www.bing.com
