4 states, a UT will go to polls in 2021: What do they expect from Budget?

West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Poducherry will go to the polls in April-May this year

West Bengal

The rallying cry of state Finance Minister Amit Mitra is: Bengal needs more money. In a letter to Finance Minister N Sitharaman, he argued between April and December 2020, the state government received only Rs 27,944 crore as tax devolution, against Rs 37,905 crore due, a 26% shortfall. The lower devolution to the state has caused severe strain on its finances at a critical time when Covid-19-induced lockdown already resulted in shrinking state revenues and increasing expenditure on health care and welfare schemes to provide relief to the poor, he said.

Mitra has also criticised the restructuring of centrally sponsored