Economy / Tripura

Agartala, May 13: Growing debt, sharply rising liability in non-plan expenses and non-receipt of dues from the Centre have triggered a major crisis for the cash-strapped government of Tripura. The state government will find it difficult to meet expenses on salary and pension bills. A senior official in the finance department said the government had passed a budget of Rs 2991.84 crore with an uncovered deficit of Rs 68 crore.

“We expected that payment of outstanding dues from the award of the 11th Finance Commission and fresh grants on non-plan head from the 12th Finance Commission would help...

Agartala, March 9: The comptroller and auditor general report, 2002-2003, tabled in the just-concluded session of the Tripura Assembly, has revealed that the 15 bullet-proof vehicles procured by the police for counter-insurgency operations are not bullet-resistant at all.

The vehicles continue to ply in the rebel-infested areas of the state, endangering the security forces.

According to the report, in 2001 the state police had acquired 15 bullet-proof Maruti Gypsy vehicles from the Union home ministry for Rs 65.14 lakh. The vehicles were then dispatched to the ordnance factory in Medak for...

AGARTALA, Dec 12 ? Agartala Bench of Gauhati High Court has served a notice to Tripura government on a litigation that questioned legality of amendment of electric supply conditions enhancing power tariff on the basis of a 1910 act, which is not in force. The state electricity department in a notification on June 11, 2003 invoked Indian Electricity Act, 1910 (IX of 1910) for amendment of Tripura Electricity Supply Condition 1998. The amendment was required to hike the power tariff at domestic as well as business establishments.

Appearing before Justice AH Saikia on behalf of the petitioner...

AGARTALA, May 7 — Tripura Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury today presented in the Assembly a deficit budget of Rs 2991.84 crore that imposes no new taxes, for the 2003-2004 year, reports PTI. He said overall budgetary provision for expenditure for the year would be Rs 2991.84 crore while the receipts would be Rs 2923.49 crore leaving a deficit of Rs 68.35 crore. Chowdhury later told reporters that the deficit would be covered by economy of expenditure without imposing any taxes.

In the budget speech, Chowdhury said the central government’s policy of liberalisation was increasing the gap...

AGARTALA, April 22 — The Rubber Development Board has decided to bring 5000 hectares of fresh land under plantation programme in Tripura in the Tenth Five Year Plan, according to Commissioner of the Board S Krishnakumar, reports PTI. The total outlay for rubber development in the Tenth Plan proposal in North East is Rs 84 crore of which Rs 40 crore has been alloted for Tripura, Krishnakumar told reporters here Sunday.

The Commissioner said Tripura stands second to Kerala in rubber production in the country. He said as per the Tenth Plan proposal, 5000 hectares of land will be utilised for...

AGARTALA, July 6? Planning Commission has pegged an outlay of Rs 4500 crore for Tripura under the 10th Five -year Plan. The State government?s demand was Rs 6908.25 crore. Earlier, the Planning Commis-sion sought to allocate Rs 3080 crore without any discussion with the State government. During 9th Five Year Plan period the plan size for the State was Rs 2577.39 crore. The increase in the plan allocation from that of previous plan period stands at Rs 1922.61 crore. The 10th Five Year Plan size was finalised yesterday at a meeting between Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Planning...

AGARTALA, June 18 ? The Tripura government will export horticultural products to Nepal, informed State Cooperative Minister Niranjan Debbarma. He said the State Apex Cooperative Society will export the products to Nepal. According to the minister, 12 metric tonnes of processed foods mostly pineapple and orange jams and jelly in tinned containers will be despatched to Nepal. A total of 16,000 MT of raw horticulture items will also be sent to other north-eastern States. Debbarma said, to facilitate the storage of horticultural and agricultural products a new cold-storage of 3000 MT capacity will...

AGARTALA, June 2? A joint core group between businessmen of India and Bangladesh would be formed at regional level to enhance border trade and other bi-lateral relations, reports PTI. The Chambers of Commerces of Agartala and Dhaka would form the core group to explore avenues leading to enhance foreign trade, tourism, communication, towards enhancing trade trend and sign a memorandum of understanding in August in Dhaka, State Industries Minister Pabitra Kar said on Saturday. The decision was taken at the Indo-Bangla talks that ended here on Friday. Kar said business groups of two sides would...

NEW DELHI, April 25 ? Meghalaya ranked lowest in utilisation of funds from the Centre?s non-lapsable Central pool of resources scheme for the speedy development of the north-eastern region while Tripura topped the list for maximum per capital utilisation of the allocated money, reports PTI. ?The largest amount of Rs 293.16 crore was released for various projects in Assam during the last four financial years allowed by Rs 215.29 crore for Tripura.

The lowest release of Rs 66.81 crore was for Meghalaya due to poor utilisation of funds and lack of viable project proposals,? PD Shenoy, secretary...

NEW DELHI, April 24 ? Although the highest allocation from the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Fund went to Assam, the State has slipped in utilisation, even as Tripura emerged at the top in terms of utilisation of funds sanctioned out of the pool. For the fund starved north-eastern States, there is encouraging news in store as with the activation of the Central Pool of Resources the allocation is expected to go up. Allocation for the last four years has recorded a quantum jump to Rs 1,346.72 crore. Among the north eastern States, the highest allocation of Rs 293.16 crore has flowed to Assam...