Kolkata: The West Bengal budget for 2015-16 showed a revised own-tax collection of Rs 40,062 crore for 2014-15 against the budgeted estimate of Rs 45,413 crore.
Tax revenues are composed of states’ own-tax revenues and share in central taxes. The budgeted estimate of own-tax revenue collection for 2015-16 has been pegged at Rs 46,500 crore, an increase of only Rs 1,000 crore from the earlier budget projection.
It is fully confident of meeting the target as the month of March is still ahead. Sans any fresh tax proposals in the budget, the finance minister has given several concessions in the form of increasing the level of VAT threshold, amnesty scheme for dealers who were still outside the VAT fold, VAT relief to the MSME sector and stamp duty relief among others.
In his budget speech, Mitra said that the state was carrying a huge debt burden left by the previous government and repeated pleas to the Centre for waiver of interest payments went unheeded. He said that the budget aimed to create 17.5 lakh new employment opportunities across various sectors.
