Union budget makes state see red

Mou Chakraborty and Aloke Banerjee
Kolkata, March 1, 2007

The state is not happy with the budget.
Speaking at the Satyapriya Ray birth centenary celebration organised by the All Bengal Teachers Association, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the budget shows that the Centre is trying to shed its responsibility in the education sector. “From the numbers projected in the budget, it is clear that the Centre wants to shed its responsibilities towards education. No state government can accept it,” he said. Bhattacharjee is particularly unhappy with the money allotted to Sarva Shiksha Avijan (SSA).
While the allocation on education has been increased by 34.2 per cent to Rs 32,352 crore, the allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has gone up to Rs 10,671 crore. But despite the hike in the budgetary allocation in education, the government feels that because of the Free and Compulsory Education Bill, the budgetary provision of SSA will not reach the states.
The budgetary provision in secondary education will also not reach the state and will be restricted to schools run by the central government. “Education is in the concurrent list and the Centre cannot shy away from its monitory responsibility. But now it seems they are more interested in exercising their control rather than spending money,” said Biswas.
According to Bhattacharjee, the state will carry on with its programme of development in the education sector. “We have done a mapping of schools and colleges and according to that we will open new educational institutions,” the chief minister said.
The higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhury also joined in the criticism by saying that research and development has been neglected, especially in the context of Bengal. “There was no mention of budgetary allocation to the Bose Institute, Indian Institute for Cultivation of Science and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. These institutes are doing an excellent job and need the Centre’s support”, Ray Chaudhury told Hindustan Times.
The higher education minister also expressed dissatisfaction at Calcutta University not receiving the special grant of Rs 100 crore promised by the finance minister in his Budget for 2006-07. “There was no mention of that grant this time. We are disappointed,” added Ray Chaudhury.
Chidambaram’s measure to contain the dropout rate at schools by creating a special corpus of Rs 750 crore with the State Bank of India and offering Rs 1 lakh scholarship, also drew a lukewarm response from the school education minister Partha De.
“The finance minister has offered the scholarships to students from Class VIII onwards. But the modalities are not known. However, the maximum drop-outs happen when children go from Class I to Class II and from Class V to Class VI,” De added.
Meanwhile, the information technology minister Debesh Das has expressed concern over the imposition of taxes on the IT companies in the Union budget, which were to enjoy zero tax benefits till 2009.
Das told HT on Thursday that Bhattacharjee had urged the Centre to extend tax benefits even beyond 2009. “Far from extending the tax benefit period, the Centre has imposed 11.3 per cent tax on profit. While the big companies will be able to cope with the tax, the smaller companies and particularly the call centres and BPOs will be hard hit,” Das said.
The minister also wondered why the new Special Economic Zones set up after 2005 were allowed tax exemption in the budget, while the small IT and ITeS companies, which generate maximum employment, were targeted.
Das also criticised the decision to tax company shares enjoyed by senior IT officials. “Offering shares was one of the methods to retain senior executives. Now the opportunity will be lost as it has come under fringe benefit tax,” he lamented.
The minister also expressed concern over imposition of taxes on rented space being used by IT companies. “Maximum growth in our state has occurred on rented spaces. Now even such spaces will be taxed,” he said.
Mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com
alokebanerjee@hindustantimes.com