Tripura govt tables Rs 27,654-crore deficit budget, proposes no new tax

Agartala: Tripura Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy on Friday tabled a Rs 27,654-crore deficit budget for the current fiscal with no new tax proposals.

Presenting the budget on the first day of the Monsoon session, Singha said the state's economy is likely to grow at 8 per cent.

He said the capital expenditure is projected at Rs 5,358.70 crore, an increase of 22.28 per cent compared to last year's outlay. A deficit of Rs 611.30 crore was estimated in the budget, he said.

The minister proposed to introduce the CM Jan Arogya Yojana-2023, a health insurance plan, on the lines of the Ayushman Bharat scheme of the central government.

"The CM-JAY will cover the remaining 4.75 lakh families (those who are not covered by Ayushman Bharat) and provide insurance benefits of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum per family. State government employees will also be covered. The government will spend about Rs 589 crore per annum for the scheme", he said.

The budget also proposed to introduce a new scheme, Mukyamantri Konya Atmanirbhor Yojana, to provide free scooters to 100 girl toppers of class 12 to motivate them for higher education.

The minister also proposed to develop a tourism and cultural promotion hub at Gandhighat in Agartala under North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) with an estimated cost of Rs 35 crore.

He informed the House that the government is aiming massive infrastructure development with the help of Asian Development Bank in six districts with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore.