Agartala: Tripura Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy on Friday tabled a Rs 27,804 crore deficit budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 with an extra emphasis on capital expenditure. A total of Rs 6,633 crore, 21.82 per cent of the total outlay, will be spent on capital expenditure. This saw a hike of 24.26 per cent compared to last year’s budgetary allocation.
The total receipt in the Revenue Account is projected to be 22,957.54 crore, and expenditure in the same head is expected to be Rs 21,170.87 crore. The surplus here stands at Rs 1,786.67 crore. In the Capital Account, receipts from the loans and others are estimated to be Rs 4,436.44 crore, and the expenditure is Rs 6,533.80 crore. The deficit stands at Rs 2,197.36 crore.
The total receipts under the major heads–Capital and Revenue Accounts–stand at Rs 27,393.98 crore, while the total expenditure is projected to be Rs 27,804.67 crore. The total deficit stands at Rs 410.69 crore.
It is worth mentioning here that last year, the total outlay of the Tripura budget proposal was Rs 27,654.40 crore and Rs 5,358.7 crore was earmarked for capital investment. Speaking to reporters, Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy dubbed the budget as “Inclusive”, “Futuristic” and “Growth-oriented”. He said the budget has something for all the sections of the society, including women, Youth, transgender, Janjati, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, OBCs, and Minorities. “The government employees will also benefit from the budget,” said the minister.
According to the Tripura budget document, the state government will provide Rs 698.68 crore to the TTAADC. Besides, the state government is allocating Rs 39.93 per cent of the total development funds for the welfare of the people through Tribal Sub Plans (TSP).
The Minister also said the government was contemplating the constitution of a land bank. “Under this scheme, unused government land would be developed and leased out to the private parties. If required the government would also acquire private land under the project. A total of Rs 10 crore is earmarked for the project,” the finance minister has said.
Apart from that, all the rural hamlets inhabited by the primitive vulnerable tribal groups would be identified and electrification work would be initiated. A sum of Rs 69.12 crore will be spent on this initiative.
A total of Rs 7.51 crore is earmarked for construction of 85 pink toilets.
Meanwhile, the highest share—27.94 per cent—of the Tripura budget outlay has been kept for payment of salaries and wages, while 11.55 per cent of the budget is for pension and other retirement benefits. Payment of interest and repayment of loan claim 5.34 per cent and 2.04 per cent of the budget’s share respectively.
In total, the committed expenditure of the government that is visibly not going to fund any development initiatives stands at 46.87 per cent while the capital expenditure and expenditure in other areas make a total of 53.13 per cent of the total outlay.
Sectors like Agriculture and allied services get 6.19 per cent of the allocation, while spending in tribal areas is above 4 per cent. Spending for health and family welfare stands in the Tripura Budget is at 6.21 per cent, while Rural Development gets importance with 7.98 per cent of the total allocation. Other important areas where spending is noticeable are Home (Police, Jail, Fire Service) with 8.48 per cent and Public Works with 11.04 per cent.
Allocation for education is highest like always, which stands at 19.81 percent.
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