Bengal finance minister Swapan Dasgupta on Thursday held a meeting with stakeholders in north Bengal with the purported purpose of knowing their views and hopes ahead of the Suvendu Adhikari government's first budget, which is likely to be presented in the Assembly on June 20.
The meeting was held at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat in Siliguri.
“We have conducted a meeting here with various stakeholders to understand their views of and expectations from the upcoming state budget. A similar meeting will be held in Durgapur next week,” Dasgupta said.
Representatives from the tea and tourism industries, along with several trade bodies from across the region, attended the meeting. Ministers Nisith Pramanik and
Anandamay Barman, along with senior officials, were also present.
The finance minister said that various issues concerning north Bengal were discussed, including tourism development, mango production in Malda and infrastructure improvement.
“There was a proposal to set up an appellate tribunal for GST (goods and services tax) in north Bengal, possibly in Siliguri, which was also discussed, and the demand is legitimate. We are considering it seriously. Compared to the previous tenure, the current relationship between the Centre and the state is different, and we want to send a message that the government is pro-business. This will help strengthen the state economy and overcome backwardness compared to other states,” said Dasgupta.
Among the trade bodies which participated in the discussion was the Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry, North Bengal (Focin), one of the oldest business organisations in the region.
“... Thousands of traders were evicted during highway expansion and other development projects, and we urged the minister to ensure
proper rehabilitation measures for them,” said Biswajit Das, the general secretary of FOCIN.
Atanubandhu Lahiri, general secretary of the Raiganj Merchants’ Association, appealed to the minister to clear nearly ₹40 crore, which were dues as subsidies under different heads for entrepreneurs based in the industrial estates of Raiganj and Iluabari, both in North Dinajpur district.
The Indian Tea Association (ITA) submitted a memorandum to Dasgupta, seeking exemption from the agricultural income tax and cess.
“The state should consider providing incentives for the introduction of a targeted modernisation support framework in the organised tea sector in Bengal, including capital subsidy for factory modernisation, interest subvention for technology upgradation, support for energy-efficient machinery and fiscal incentives for sustainable manufacturing infrastructure,” said a representative of ITA.
Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the president of the Confederation of Indian Small Tea Growers Associations, underscored that the cultivators should be brought under the ambit of the central and state schemes meant for farmers.