KOLKATA: Terming the Budget presented in the state Assembly today as a document of 'misinformed figures', the opposition parties said it is being placed keeping in mind the elections next year.
"Lot of facts and figures are incorrect and the government's comments are baseless. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is saying that Junglemahal is laughing. But, there is no proper allocation for the Junglemahal area," Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra told reporters.
The West Bengal Budget for 2015-16 presented today by state Finance Minister Amit Mitra, has showed a revised tax collection of Rs 40,062 crore for 2014-15 against the budgeted estimate of Rs 45,413 crore.
Tax revenues were composed of the states' own-tax revenues and share in central taxes.
"This is a populist budget, aimed at this year's civic polls and Assembly elections next year. There has been no mention of the Food Security Act that was started last year by the UPA government and didn't reflect the state's fiscal policy," Congress member Manas Bhuniya said.
Terming the Budget as "direction-less," Congress Legislature Party leader Mohd Sohrab said it was a document full of populist measures and was merely a "jugglery of statistics".
Criticising the Budget, BJP MLA Samik Bhattacharya said "This Budget is like a mathematics question paper with answers from philosophy and aimed at elections. It is not a constructive one with proper vision. The state government has failed in garnering targeted revenues. There has been no mention about setting up of heavy industries in the state."