Tripura Deputy CM tables Rs 26,893 crore tax-free deficit budget, emphasis on social pension, welfare

Agartala (Tripura) [India], March 17 : Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also holds the charge of the State Finance department on Thursday presented his fifth budget in the state assembly for the fiscal year 2022-23.
He informed that a total sum of Rs 26,892.67 crore with a deficit of Rs 569.52 has been allocated for the state's budget meant for the Financial year 2022-23. The budget marks a historic increase of allocations by 18.34 per cent which if translated into absolute figures stands at 4,168 crores.
Tripura Finance Secretary Brijesh Pandey said the budget was historic in the sense because first time such a big increase in absolute amounts has been made in the budgetary allocations.
The Finance Minister in his budget speech laid emphasis on key issues like the government's intention to increase the allocations for social welfare and livelihood opportunities.
In the budget, importance has been also given in sectors like education, livestock rearing and encouraging the involvement of people in primary areas.
Pandey said, "this budget is standing on two foundations, one is development through boosting infrastructure and another is welfare so that people have money in their pockets and they can spend".
In the budget speech, Dev Varma said, that the Tripura government tabled a tax-free budget of Rs 22,724.50 crore for the 2021-22 financial year and the deficit was Rs 773.43 crore last year.
He further informed that the capital expenditure has been doubled to Rs 5,285 crore in Budget Estimates of 2022-23 from Rs 2,651 crore in budget estimates of 2021-22 to ensure more investment in expenditure. The state's GSDP is estimated to grow at about 13.28 per cent in FY 2022-23 at constant prices.
In the Education sector of Tripura, a total of Rs 5,026 crore has been earmarked which records a rise of 20.66 per cent in 2022-23 if compared to the last year, whereas in the Health sector, with a 23 per cent increase Rs 1,777 crore is allocated for setting up new primary and community health centres.
The main motive being decentralization of the health sector and making sure healthcare is available at the village level, he added.
"A new scheme--"Suvarna Jayanti Tripura Nirman Yojana" was announced with a proposal of Rs 1,000 crore. An amount of Rs 1000 crore is proposed for the scheme. This project is a special infrastructure drive from the state government to celebrate the 50 years of statehood. The projects include- road, Sainik School, National Law University, Mahila Shashaktikaran Abhiyan, etc," he said.
Another key announcement came as an increase in the social pension from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. The announcement assumes significance as it was among the main highlights of Vision Document, a list of promises that BJP released before the 2018 assembly polls.
"Tripura government will increase the social pension to Rs 2000 from 1,000 for 3.81 lakh beneficiaries. The new benefits will come into effect before Durga Puja 2022. For this purpose Rs 645 crore is earmarked," said the Deputy Chief Minister.
A panel will be constituted under the stewardship of Tripura's Chief Secretary to make necessary recommendations and implement the scheme.
Other key highlights of the budget proposals include 16 new Eklavya Model Residential Schools and one Eklavya Model school for tribal people with a total allocation of Rs 374 crore.
Improvement and Investment in the power sector of Rs 2,660 crore with the help of Asian Development Bank, Linking of TSCB with existing 268 LAMPS and PACS to function as local outlets as per Bank Correspondence Model, Urban infrastructure and facilities in all the municipal areas with an investment of Rs 522 crore with the help of Asian Development Bank; More 25 "Vidyajyoti Schools during 2022-23; and 132 new projects for Minority development with an outlay of Rs 120 Cr under Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram.
Dev Varma said that the state government would spend Rs 152.50 crore for six new schemes while Rs 518.93 crore is kept for spending on 19 new projects.