West Bengal budget shows a deficit of Rs 793cr, proposes fresh levies to raise Rs 825 crore
West Bengal expects the state domestic product to grow at 7.6 per cent in 2002-03 driven by strong growth of the tertiary sector and agriculture.
Commenting on the prospects for the state economy in the Economic Review for the state released with the state budget today in the Assembly, finance minister Asim Dasgupta said SDP from the tertiary sector was expected to increase by about 9.8 per cent while SDP from agriculture and allied sectors would grow by about 5 per cent.
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The growth rate of the manufacturing sector was expected to be 4.7 per cent but industrial growth was expected at accelerate asd a large number of industrial projects were expected to come on stream in the near future.
The finance minister stated that the state expected revenue from tax on sales to go up with the introduction of the value added tax (VAT) system besides reducing the level of evasion of existing sales tax.
The state would introduce VAT from April 1, 2003. Dasgupta was the head of the empowered committee of finance ministers which worked out the VAT structure.
As far as the state