Bhubaneswar: With Odisha emerging as a top performing ‘achiever’ among the states listed in NITI Aayog’s first Fiscal Health Index (FHI) report for 2022-2023, BJD president and former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Saturday said it is heartening to see the state in the number one position from “financial bankruptcy”.
Chief Minister Mohan Majhi also lauded the state’s achievement. In a post on X, he said, “Odisha tops the ranking in fiscal health among 18 major states in the country. With a cumulative score of 67.8 Odisha excels at the top followed by Chhattisgarh and Goa. As per the Niti Aayog report, the achiever states display strong fiscal health, excelling in revenue mobilisation, expenditure management, and debt sustainability.”
However, Patnaik was “glad” as the achievement came during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Odisha.
“Glad to share that #Odisha has emerged the No-1 state in fiscal management across the country with a highest overall fiscal health score of 67.8% in 2022-23, as per the @NITIAayog Fiscal Health Index Report-2025,” Patnaik said in a post on X.
Stating that Odisha undertook a long journey during his tenure from financial bankruptcy to number one state in financial health, Patnaik said: “It is a truly transformative achievement.”
Recalling the state of finance when he took over as the Chief Minister of Odisha in 2000, Patnaik said, earlier, state revenues were used to repay loans and service debts, leaving very little funds available for development projects or people’s welfare.
“Making Odisha financially buoyant helped the state devise its own schemes like Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, KALIA scheme for farmers, Mission Shakti for women, focus on sports and skills transform schools and places of worship, disaster management, invaluable infrastructure, tribal empowerment, food security and also attract investments for generating employment,” Patnaik said while thanking the people of Odisha for being partners in this “historic and transformative” journey.
Mineral-rich Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Goa and Jharkhand have emerged as top-performing ‘achievers’ among the states listed in NITI Aayog’s first Fiscal Health Index (FHI) report released on Friday.
The report titled ‘Fiscal Health Index 2025’ ranked states for 2022-23, covered 18 major states that drive the Indian economy in terms of their contribution to India’s GDP, demography, total public expenditure, revenues, and overall fiscal stability.
As per the report, Odisha tops the debt index (99.0) and debt sustainability (64.0) rankings with better than average scores under quality of expenditure and revenue mobilization. Odisha has maintained low fiscal deficits, a good debt profile and an above average capital outlay/GSDP ratio.
“With a cumulative score of 67.8, Odisha tops the ranking in fiscal health among 18 major states, followed by Chhattisgarh and Goa with scores of 55.2 and 53.6, respectively. The achiever states display strong fiscal health, excelling in revenue mobilisation, expenditure management, and debt sustainability,” an official statement said.
PTI
