Budget: Bengal stands to gain from freight corridor, Durgapur industrial node, tourism push

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a range of initiatives in the Union Budget aimed at boosting infrastructure, trade and industrial growth in poll-bound West Bengal, alongside measures to support exporters, tea workers and MSMEs. A key relief for exporters includes an increase in the limit for duty-free imports of specified inputs used for processing seafood products for export from the existing 1 per cent to 3 per cent of the FOB value of the previous years export turnover.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a range of initiatives in the Union Budget aimed at boosting infrastructure, trade and industrial growth in poll-bound West Bengal, alongside measures to support exporters, tea workers and MSMEs. A key relief for exporters includes an increase in the limit for duty-free imports of specified inputs used for processing seafood products for export from the existing 1 per cent to 3 per cent of the FOB value of the previous year's export turnover. Duty-free imports have also been extended to the export of shoe uppers, in addition to leather or synthetic footwear. Exporters of leather or textile garments and leather and synthetic footwear will now get up to one year to export the final product, up from the existing six months. Seafoods and leather account for combined exports of Rs 13,000-15,000 crore from West Bengal and accounts for lakhs of employment in urban and coastal rural districts of the state. Arjun Kulkarni, past president of the Indian Leather Products Association (ILPA), said the move would help improve margins by 2-3 per cent for high leather exports, which have a 10-12 per cent import component. However, Rajarshi Banerji, member of the national managing committee of the Seafood Exporters Association of India, said the intervention is welcome but not adequate for the seafood sector, where imports are not a major cost component. The tea industry in West Bengal welcomed the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana (PMCSPY) for another year to support welfare of tea workers, especially women and children. The Budget also provided for social security measures for plantation workers in Assam through family pension-cum-life insurance benefits under the Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme. On infrastructure, the Budget proposed development of a dedicated freight corridor from Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat, aimed at reducing logistics costs for industries in eastern India. It also announced an Integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor, with a major industrial node at Durgapur, strengthening the state's role in the Centre's 'Purvodaya' vision. Tourism and urban mobility initiatives include development of five tourism destinations across the Purvodaya states, including West Bengal, and provision for 4,000 electric buses. Rail connectivity will also be boosted through seven high-speed rail corridors nationwide, including a proposed route linking Varanasi and Siliguri in northern West Bengal. On MSMEs and manufacturing, Vinod Kumar Gupta, MD of Kolkata-based Dollar Industries Ltd, said the Rs 10,000 crore MSME Growth Fund and the introduction of the National Fibre Scheme were ''strong steps towards boosting manufacturing.'' The fibre scheme would improve domestic availability of natural and man-made fibres, enhance competitiveness of the labour-intensive hosiery sector and support sustainable growth and employment generation, he said.

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