Calcutta, March 19 :     As the shadow of shutdown Dunlop worker Prosenjit Sarkar?s death hung ominously over Bengal?s barren industrial land, state finance minister Asim Dasgupta presented a budget that has a single-point agenda: to create jobs. In the process, he unveiled a package that warmed the cockles of industry and trade with a landmark sales tax reform and sweeping cuts in rates of levy, giving Bengal a structure comparable with such advanced states as Maharashtra and Gujarat. Dasgupta coupled his sales tax bonanza with a revamped scheme of incentives for industry by reorganising the districts into three (instead of four) groups, simultaneously raising the level of concessions and the duration for which these will be available. The most important step in the 1999-2000 budget is the proposal to abolish the system under which sales tax is levied on commodities at several points. Dasgupta announced that of the 550 commodities on which sales tax is levied, 530 will be taxed at only one ? the first ? point of sale. The other 20 will be taxed at two points of sale ? the first and second. Describing the impact of the extent of change this will bring about, the minister gave an illustration. He said the tax incidence on a commodity attracting a sales tax of 7 per cent under the current multi-point system of levy is 14 per cent. With single-point taxation, it will drop to 5.05 per cent. The minister claimed that as a consequence of his proposal, the tax incidence on more than 400 commodities will fall. Along with this, he slashed sales tax on a wide range of goods, starting from plant and machinery used in manufacturing to medical diagnostic equipment to biscuits and milk powder. He also proposed a scheme to settle tax disputes through a one-time payment. The budget intends to raise Rs 94 crore in additional resources through higher tax on cars, scooters and mopeds. Besides extending luxury tax to more items, Dasgupta has selectively raised profession tax, hitting those with earnings above Rs 15,000 per month. The largest chunk of his additional revenue is coming from this and revision of the rent raiyats ? holding more than four acres of irrigated land and 6 acres of non-irrigated land ? pay. The two measures will yield Rs 30 crore each. Taking a risk redolent of P. Chidambaram?s ?dream? budget of 1997-98, Dasgupta has gambled for growth through tax cuts. The flip side of this gamble is the decision to live with a wide deficit between the government?s expenditure and revenues of Rs 7603.76 crore. The current year?s deficit is Rs 5866.51 crore, having overshot the estimate by three and a half times. If the trend holds in 1999-2000, the deficit could spin out of control, putting a heavy burden of borrowing on the government to bridge the gap. The minister expects to end the year with a budget deficit of Rs 16 crore. Dasgupta has warned trade and industry that if lower rates do not improve compliance, he will come back to the House to raise taxes. He has upped the stakes in the tax-cut-for-growth gamble with the new incentive package. Under this, sunrise industries, like software and electronics, coming up in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation area, for instance, will be eligible to sales tax waiver for seven years instead of five. Taking up from where the Raichak Destination Bengal summit left off, he declared that special packages would be worked out for large projects with investments of over Rs 500 crore. Perhaps with the Haldia project in mind, petrochemicals have been given additional sales tax relief. In the backdrop of the drubbing the CPM received in the 1998 Lok Sabha polls in the industrial deserts that were once throbbing business spots and the Dunlop worker?s suicide last week, Dasgupta offered all the benefits of the new incentive scheme to any industrialist wishing to reopen a closed unit. He announced a Rs 100-crore fund to help reopen such units. The push for resurgence comes with higher outlays for education and health, giving the budget the Amartya Sen touch. The education outlay has been raised from Rs 208 crore to Rs 296 crore with a commitment to set up 4,000 ?child education centres?. The outlay for health has gone up from Rs 193 crore to Rs 235 crore.