Amit Mitra

Calcutta, July 4: Finance minister Amit Mitra today said the government had collected a “good” amount of money by imposing entry tax, adding it had signalled a boost in Bengal’s revenues this fiscal.

Participating in the debate on the appropriation bill in the Assembly, Mitra said: “There was initial scepticism in some quarters about the effects of entry tax. But members of this House will be glad to know that in the first two months of this fiscal, our government has been able to collect as much as Rs 105 crore from entry tax. That’s a good collection.’’

The finance minister added amid thumping of desks from the treasury benches: “This means that our revenues are likely to shoot up from the estimated figures in the ongoing financial year… and that will be possible, not only because of entry tax but also due to good administrative performance by the ma-mati-manush government of Mamata Banerjee.’’

An appropriation bill is tabled in the Assembly to seek legislative approval for government expenditure in a financial year.

Indicating that he was expecting increased revenues, Mitra said that in April and May, the overall collection had risen by 30.39 per cent against the estimate of 25 per cent.

The minister said the government had “fulfilled” its target of Rs 24,934 crore in own tax collection in 2011-12. “This implies that our government is on the right path… it fulfilled targets in the last fiscal and it’s likely to cross targets in the current one,’’ Mitra said.

A finance department source said the state had collected Rs 24,933 crore, Rs 1 crore less than the target.

The source said the government’s estimated revenue from entry tax was around Rs 800 crore this financial year.

Mitra said: “Ninety per cent of the Rs 105 crore in entry tax came in May and the rest in April. So, the May collection was probably around Rs 95 crore. With 10 more months remaining in this fiscal, we can expect another Rs 950 crore. That would mean exceeding the entry tax target.’’

The Trinamul Congress-led government had introduced entry tax while presenting the 2012-13 budget in March. The Opposition had said the entry tax was abolished by the Left government because of several irregularities in collection and evasion of the levy.