Tripura govt announces ex-gratia, festival advance for govt employees for Durga puja festival

Agartala: Tripura Finance minister Pranajit Singha Roy announced ex-gratia and festival advance for 1.97 lakh state government employees for the upcoming Durga puja festival.

The festival grant or ex-gratia has been increased from Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 for group C and D employees. Festival advance will be Rs 20,000 for group A, B and C employees, he said on Thursday.

The finance minister said the state government will have to spend Rs 36 crore for this purpose.

He claimed that Tripura's fiscal condition is prudent and the BJP-IPFT government has started reducing loan burden on the people from the previous financial year.

As per FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management Act), the state could take loan amounting to Rs 2,664 crore during 2022-23 FY but no loan has been taken because there is no need to increase fiscal burden, he told reporters at the Civil Secretariat.

In the year 2021-22, the state received Rs 300 crore loan against its permissible limit of Rs 2,400 crore as per FRBM. "Now we have started making a capital refund of Rs 975 crore each year to reduce the loan burden of the state. This shows the state's fiscal condition is stable and prudent", he said.

In regard to the state's loan burden, Singha Roy said when the BJP-IPFT government came to power in 2018, the state's total loan stood at Rs 12,902 crore but now it has gone up to Rs 21,687 crore.

"The government needs to take loans to carry out development activities and other expenditures but we did not cross the limit of FRBM. By this time, the state's annual budget has swelled from Rs 15,956.56 crore in 2017-18 FY to 26,892.67 crore in 2022-23 FY. There has been a steep increase in the state's GSDP from Rs 43,716 to Rs.74,100", he pointed out.

The finance minister further said the GSDP has increased substantially during the past six years because of proper management of fiscal aspects which reflects the state's healthy fiscal condition.