Budget session of Tripura Assembly to begin on Friday

The Budget session of the Tripura Assembly will start on Friday and apart from the budget for fiscal 2025-26, some important bills and reports will be tabled during the session.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that Finance, Planning and Coordination Minister Pranajit Singha Roy would present the 2025-26 budget on the first day of the session on Friday (March 21).

Nath, who also holds the Agriculture and Power portfolio, said that the schedule of the budget session was finalised in the recent Business Advisory Committee meeting, presided over by Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen.

Besides Nath, several ministers, ruling party MLAs, Leader of Opposition (LOP) Jitendra Chaudhury and Congress MLA Birajit Sinha were present in the meeting. He said that with seven sittings, the budget session would continue till April 1.

"The Tripura Assembly session would be the longest in 15 years. The government wants more and more detailed and in-depth discussions on the budget and other important issues. We want maximum numbers of treasury and opposition benches members to participate in the budget discussion and other important matters,” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister told the media.

The upcoming session would be the second session of the Tripura Assembly this year.

Earlier, this year’s first three-day session was held from January 10. In the last session, a bill was passed in the Assembly hiking the salaries and allowances of the Chief Minister, Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, LoP, Chief whip and MLAs by over 81 to 92 per cent. According to the Bill, an MLA will get all retirement benefits if he or she has served as a member of the House even just for a day.

The Bill proposed to increase the salaries of the Chief Minister to Rs 97,000, the Deputy Chief Minister to Rs 96,000, Ministers, Speaker, LoP, and Chief Whip to Rs 95,000, the Deputy Speaker to Rs 94,000 and an MLA to Rs 93,000.