The West Bengal government today presented its vote-on-account in the Assembly and proposed a 17 per cent rise in plan outlay at Rs 57,905 crore for FY 2017, even as it proposed no new tax.
The interim financial statement projects Rs 8 crore deficit for FY 2016-17.
"This budget proposes no new tax and announcement of no new scheme, this year being an election year. This is allocation for the full year and vote-on-accounts for four months on the expenditure the government will incur till new government is in place," state finance minister Amit Mitra said.
He said the state on the Gross Value Added count has expanded at 12 per cent against national growth of 7.3 per cent.
Further, he highlighted his government's works for the development of the state in comparison with the previous Left government.
The capital expenditure has increased six times from Rs 15,946 crore.
The budgeted total receipts for the next fiscal (FY17) stand at Rs 1,59,570.68 crore, while total expenditure at Rs 1,59,573.68 crore.
The revised budget for 2015-16 for state tax revenue stands at Rs 42,919.66 crore, down from the budgeted amount Rs 46,496.82 crore, indicating slower economic activity than projected.
State finance ministry officials remained optimistic about the actual tax collection being much higher than the revised FY16 budget, as only in the current quarter (Jan-Mar) tax collection is the highest.
Total debt of the state has swelled to Rs 3.04 lakh crore as per revised budgetary estimate at Rs 2.99 lakh crore proposed when the budget was placed for FY16.
In 2016-17 projection, the debt is seen moving further higher to Rs 3.34 lakh crore.
A top finance ministry official said it is a choice between biting bullet at the cost of welfare of the people or managing debt more prudently, both cannot go parallely.
"However, we are within the fiscal discipline as the budget numbers show that the government proposes to shell out Rs 53,869.10 crore for social services, much higher than revised estimates of Rs 45,857.08 crore in 2015-16 and actual spend of Rs 40,155.67 crore in 2014-15.
