People's Democracy

B Prasant

THE vote-on-account budget of the Bengal Left Front government for the first four months of the fiscal year (FY) 2001-2002 depicts a budget size of Rs 32,490 crore, and has proposed employment-related developmental measures that will ensure a coordinated growth of all major economic indicators.

In the course of his introductory remarks, finance minister Asim Dasgupta pointed out how the policy of liberalisation of the BJP-run regime in Delhi had depressed the growth rates of industrial and agricultural production of the country as a whole. He noted that these developments had had a most unsavory impact also on the employment situation nationwide.

In Bengal, too, the liberal import regime had adversely affected coal, tea, vegetable oil and jute industries. In agriculture, the production and marketing of rice has been badly affected.

And yet, as the budget document pointed out, agricultural production, especially of food crops, has continued to maintain constant progress in West Bengal, far ahead of the national average. The redistributive land reforms and decentralisation of financial and administrative powers to the level of the village panchayats have acted as the principal factors behind this success.

The devastation caused by the unprecedented floods during the past monsoon session, and the non-availability of any central assistance worth its name, temporarily deterred but did not halt the ongoing pro-people developmental efforts in the affected districts.

The finance minister also gave details of the massive relief and rehabilitation measures that the state Left Front government had carried out, working in close cooperation of mass organisations and voluntary outfits. Quoting figures, he declared that despite the natural calamity, the production of rabi crops exceeded the target of 20 per cent increase set by the LF government.

The industrial scene looks reassuring amid the general depression prevailing at the national level. In Bengal, 451 industrial projects have already been completed out of 2,465 industrial approvals. (These will account for projected investment for Rs 54,803 crore in the days to come.) The completion of these 451 projects represents a total investment at the moment of Rs 17,408 crore and reflects an increase of 77 per cent over the past fiscal. The major projects include the Haldia petrochemical project, the Mitsubishi PIA plant, the cold rolling mill of Bhushan industries, the cement plant of the Ambuja group and the information technology projects.

The Haldia project has had a downstream industrial cascade of 411 units as against the target of 354. There is direct employment for 11,055 persons in the Haldia petrochemical unit itself. The projected figure of indirect employment stands at nearly 12,000.

The information technology industries include the 160 units at Bidhannagar near the Kolkata metropolis with an employment capacity of close to 11,500 men and women. The computer software exports from Bengal have increased to Rs 700 crore from Rs 400 crore in 1998-99, a growth of 75 per cent.

Along with industrial expansion, power generation and supply have been increased, especially after the commission of all three units of the Bakreswar power plant. A special drive for rural electrification has started to yield very encouraging results, the budget document noted.

As part of extension of the social basis of the development programme, the finance minister noted, the rate of literacy has been increased through intensive efforts at the grass-roots level. Female literacy, too, has advanced at a fast pace. There is an overall literacy rate of 72 per cent in Bengal. Mortality rate has come down to 7.1 per cent and only Kerala under the CPI(M)-led LDF government has a better average of 6.4 per cent. Birth rate, too, has come down to 20.7 per cent. Kerala, again, has the lowest national rate of birth at 18 per cent.

About resource mobilisation, Dasgupta identified small savings as one of the prime areas from where highest rates of accrual can occur, especially with the participation of the panchayats.

Besides, the excise duties will fetch more than Rs 510 crore while the non-tax revenue will stand at Rs 1331 crore. Additional resources will be gathered from allocation of grants as per recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission relating to the norms of both equity and efficiency.

In case all these resources are successfully mobilised, the state’s annual plan expenditure can be increased to Rs 6943 crore. The rate of growth of the state domestic product (SDP) will stand at 7.6 per cent as against 6 per cent of the rate of growth for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Inflation figure of the state (7.2 per cent) is lower than the national average of 8.3 per cent.

The finance minister did not make any proposal for taxes in the vote-on-account budget. Nor did he mention any specific fresh schemes. He, however, appeared confident in predicting an annual additional employment generation of eight lakh on the basis of ongoing and future projects. He made certain specific suggestions.

In agriculture, the net irrigated area is to be further stretched from the current 62 to 75.5 per cent of the land parcels available for cultivation. Field channels of large irrigation projects need to be completed on the basis of priority. Maintenance and development of the medium and small irrigation projects should be left to the panchayats so as to generating greater social surplus than is being done at the moment.

The finance minister saw the mobilisation of bio-technological implements and regimens as something compulsory to improve the seeds and fertilisers towards enhancing agrarian growth beyond the present limits. Similar emphasis on modern technology needs to be attached in fishery and animal resource development.

Cooperative banking and its liaison with self-help groups in urban and rural areas will not merely counter the speculative enterprises but "also strengthen the popular democratic movement itself," commented Asim Dasgupta. The number of self-help groups which stands at close to 80,000 in Bengal can easily be pushed beyond one lakh in the next five years.

"On the basis of these collective efforts," the budget document noted, "the overall rate of growth of output from the agricultural and allied sectors can be raised to the level of 4.6 per cent with an additional employment generation of three lakh per year."

Elsewhere, with connectivity and networking facilities on the rise, the IT industry in the state will certainly undergo a qualitative change for the better, and this will bring in more development and more employment for Bengal. Sick and closed industrial units, said the finance minister, need to be revived by the state LF government without waiting for a reluctant union government to get to its feet. In the units thus revived, managerial improvement and accountability need to be given additional importance.

Vocational and technical education needs to be looked into more meaningfully, to be suitably tied up with the process of industrialisation and employment-generation.

The budget document also spoke about prioritising the supply of potable water, strengthening of the health-care system, and 100 per cent electrification of rural Bengal, in particular.

The finance minister did not doubt that the next three years will witness additional employment generation of two lakh from the large and medium size industries.

The vote-on-account budget called for an expansion of the plan expenditure by close to 23 per cent to Rs 7111 crore and the total expenditure by 15 per cent to Rs 32,490 crore in the next fiscal 2001-2002. This leaves a gap of Rs three crore between income and expenditure, down from the estimated deficit of Rs 8 crore.

Concluding, the finance minister said that in order to maintain the ongoing development of Bengal, it was essential to ensure massive participation of people and of self-governing institutions in rural and urban areas. It was equally important, said Asim Dasgupta, that accountability and transparency supplement the participatory drive.