West Bengal 2012-13 Budget promises cheap paneer and kites

25 March, 2012

Nearly 10 months after coming to power, the West Bengal government has been able to present a budget of sorts to the people of the state. Few items which would be cheaper are panner, kites and eating in cheap restaurants.

IN KEEPING with the policy of the TMC, our Mamata-didi, the Chief Minister of the state has ensured that the interests of the common man are preserved and that they are not financially hurt in any way due to the budget presented by her Finance Minister Amit Mitra.

At least, there are no perceivable pointers that the budget would have any direct effect on the lifestyle of populace. As expected, there has been a hike in VAT by 1% on several products – like cars, which cost over 10-lakhs rupees and TV sets over 25,000 and mobile phone handsets priced at over 20,000 and wrist watches costing over 15,000.

The common man can take this hike with a pinch of salt because he hardly ever goes in for such costly items, which to him fall in the category of luxury items – unless he comes into a windfall. These costly luxury items are meant for the rich and the famous, hence an additional 1% as VAT would not matter much to them.

But – a major question is that how many pieces of such products would be sold in the state during 2012-2013 and how much additional revenue would be generated under this head by the Amit Mitra, the Finance Minister.

Another interesting aspect is the introduction of a new type of tax on incoming goods to the state. The amount of tax is yet to be declared but, there are apprehensions in some quarters that this would open up yet another avenue of corruption for those who believe in the maxim - make hay while the sun shines.

Moreover, levying of this tax would indirectly lead to a hike in prices which the TMC wants to avoid – why then consider such a proposal.