Budget 2023: Key Highlights of ₹3.39L Crore West Bengal Budget

The West Bengal government’s 3.39 lakh crore (2023–24) budget was announced by the Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, with a stronger emphasis on artificial intelligence and young entrepreneurs. Last year’s budget (2022-23) was ₹3,21,030 crore, where the government exempted the Registration fee and Road tax on all categories of CNG vehicles for the next 2 years from 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The key highlights are:

• Dearness Allowance (DA) hiked by 3% for Government employees and retirees.
• Waived Agricultural Income Tax on Tea Gardens for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
• Exempted Rural Employment Cess and Education Cess for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
• Waived water rate on irrigation
• Extended 2% rebate on stamp duty and 10% rebate on circle rate of land/property up to 30th September, 2023.
• “Bhavishyat Credit Card “scheme – up to 2 lakh young people between the ages of 18 and 45 will receive loans up to Rs. 5 lakh from banks for setting up micro-enterprises.
• 1.88 Crore women to be included in Lakshmi Bhandar Project.

Education had a budget of 37,075.05 crore, which is the largest amount. The least amount, 72.03 crores, goes to Public Enterprises & Industrial Reconstruction. The government has given every department the attention it can muster. MSMEs and textiles would each receive 1,218.21 crore from the budget. Unfortunately, just 75.31 crores were allotted for science and technology and biotechnology.

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