KOLKATA: Presenting a Rs. six-crore deficit budget for 2006-2007 in the West Bengal Assembly here on Friday, Finance Minister Asim Kumar Dasgupta pegged the State's Plan outlay for this fiscal at Rs. 8,374 crore — an increase of 24.5 per cent from the previous year.

The target for the rate of growth of the State Domestic Product was fixed at 8.5 per cent as against 8.07 per cent in the previous financial year, he added. The additional mobilisation of resources through tax measures and simplification of procedures during the current fiscal will be Rs. 46 crore.

Opposition members belonging to the Trinamool Congress walked out of the House in the course of Dr. Dasgupta's budget speech after raising slogans against the State's refusal to withdraw cess on petrol and diesel.

Dr. Dasgupta has set an additional employment generation target of at least 7,00,000 in the current fiscal. "The issue is not simply one of fixing the target for rate of growth of total production ... it has been shown how this can create potentialities of additional generation of employment in the major sectors of the State economy," he added.

In view of the State Government's plans for greater industrialisation and "to encourage further the process of investment in industries" the Plan outlay for the Commerce and Industries Department has more than doubled to Rs. 175.81 crore.

Following discussions with representatives of the Reserve Bank of India and other banks it has also been decided that "the disbursement of credit for small scale industries will be raised to Rs. 2500 crore and an additional amount of Rs. 5000 crore will have to be disbursed for the medium scale industries," Dr. Dasgupta said.

The budget proposes to increase the Plan outlay for the education sector to Rs. 826 crore — an increase of more than Rs. 200 crore — and that for the health sector to Rs. 442.99 crore with an allocation of Rs. 169 crore for the improvement of hospitals.

The Plan outlay for the irrigation department has also been considerably raised to Rs. 322.50 crore — an increase of Rs. 81 crore from the previous fiscal, the Minister added.

Small savings loans

Dr. Dasgupta regretted that the debt-relief package recommended by the Twelfth Finance Commission in respect of Central loans to the State has specifically excluded from its purview the small savings loans given by the Centre to the States from 1999-2000 onwards. In the case of West Bengal, the predominant component of the Central loans is the small savings-related loan. As a result, the main problem of Central loan burden on the State has remained unsolved, he said.

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