Assam Budget: Ajanta Neog's Rs 2.63 lakh crore plan offers sops to youth, tea garden workers

Assam Budget 2025 Details: Assam Finance Minister Ajanta Neog on Monday unveiled a Rs 2.63 lakh-crore Budget for the financial year beginning April 1, marking the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government's last full-year Budget before the Assembly polls due in March-April next year. Neog's Budget proposes sops for jobless graduates and tea garden workers while exempting a section of the salaried class (those earning up to Rs 15,000 per month) from professional tax in the state, a move set to benefit more than 1.43 lakh taxpayers or families.

Here are key things to know about the latest Assam Budget: 

• The poll-bound Budget pegged a deficit of Rs 620.3 crore at the end of FY26, given an estimated surplus of Rs 1,954.7 crore and the opening deficit of Rs 2,575 crore.
• The Budget proposes no new tax for the general public but offers additional relief to almost 1.5 lakh salaried individuals in the state.
• The latest Assam Budget proposes to extend a tax holiday for green tea leaves for two more years to alleviate the challenges faced by the industry. Additionally, it offers a one-time cash benefit of Rs 5,000 to 6.8 lakh garden workers.
• The state finance minister announced flagship scheme Chief Minister's Jibon Prerana to provide financial aid to graduates for a year during their job-seeking period.
• The finance minister said that the initiative is not an unemployment allowance, but motivational support to help them prepare for competitive exams, interviews and entrepreneurial pursuits. "I am glad to announce Rs 2,500 per month to the graduates passing out in 2025 from government universities/colleges of Assam," she added. 
• The government also seeks to provide a one-time Rs 25,000 grant to the research scholars of state and central government universities, an initiative aimed at providing financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to research scholars with disabilities. The state government plans to launch the scheme in October with an allocation of Rs 25 crore.
• The latest Assam Budget proposes to cut the electricity rate by Re 1 per unit under Jeevan Dhara and domestic consumers on up to 120 units a month, giving relief to 48 lakh consumers.
• Acknowledging the various challenges faced by the tea industry, the state finance minister announced the extension of a tax holiday on green tea leave workers under the Assam Taxation (on Specified Lands) Act, 1990, for another two years, effective January 1, 2025. Neog also announced a one-time financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to each of 6.8 lakh existing tea garden workers.
• Though Neog mentioned Rs 6.44 lakh crore as the Gross Domestic Product (GSDP) for 2024-25 fiscal registering 13 per cent growth, she did not make any projection of the same for the next fiscal.
• "Our government's comprehensive efforts have enabled about 46.87 lakh people to escape multidimensional poverty in Assam, as per the latest report by the Niti Aayog," said the Assam FM.

With inputs from agencies