Bhubaneswar: Amid walkout by the Congress and BJP members, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera Thursday presented state’s Vote on Account of `56,921 crore to meet expenditure for the first four months of the fiscal 2019-20.
“In view of the requirement of funds to meet salaries, pensions, interest, repayment of principal, relief, old-age pension, scholarship of ST, SC students and other ongoing programmes, `56,921 crore has been proposed in the Vote on Account seeking approval of this House to defray expenses during the four months of the fiscal (April to July), 2019,” Behera said.
This would cover 100 per cent of budget estimates for calamity and election related expenditure and 40 per cent of budget estimates for other schemes, he said.
The state government made an allocation of `2,000 crore towards Disaster Response Fund and `90 crore for election-related expenditure in this budget.
The government has also provided `4461 crore for Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) while it allocated `2935 crore for Basudha, `2120 for Madhubabu Pension Yojana, `1777 crore for Parvati Giri Mega Life irrigation scheme and `1465 crore for irrigation sector infrastructure development.
Similarly, `1300 crore was proposed to be spent on rural development, `1028 crore for providing `1 per kg rice and `959 crore for pre-matric and post matric scholarship to ST and SC students.
The total size of the budget estimates for 2019-20 has been pegged at `1,32,660 crore and the capital outlay at `23,784 crore, which is 4.4 per cent of Gross State Domestics Product (GSDP).
Additionally, loans and advances, grants for creation of capital assets and other expenditure for capital formation together account for nearly `10,000 crore, which is about 2 per cent of GSDP.
Of the total annual outlay, administrative expenditure is estimated at `58,170 crore including `25,500 crore for salaries, `13,300 crore for pension, `6,500 crore for interest payment and `4,880 crore for maintenance of capital assets, the minister informed the House.
Similarly, he said, the programme expenditure outlay for the new fiscal will be `70,000 crore, of which `66,000 crore has been estimated for the government sector and `4,000 crore for the Public Sector Undertakings. Transfers from the state to local bodies and development authorities will have an outlay of `6,490 crore.
Odisha’s economy is expected to grow at the rate of 8.35 per cent in 2018-19 surpassing all India growth average of 7.2 per cent, the minister said, adding, “Going by the trends in the external and domestic economic environment, the state economy can be expected to grow in the range of 8 per cent to 8.5 per cent during 2019-20.”
The finance minister, however, has refrained from announcing any new schemes in the interim budget. Talking to reporters, Finance Secretary AKK Meena said, “As this is a Vote on Account ahead of general elections, no provision has been made for new programmes. Another budget may be introduced after elections wherein such provisions may be incorporated.”
Pro-farmer, pro-poor
It’s a pro-farmer, pro-poor, pro-women, pro-SC&ST, pro-youth and development-oriented budget. I am happy that adequate provision was made for KALIA scheme and KALIA scholarships, universal health scheme – Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, women related initiates – Mamata and Mission Shakti, scholarship for SC, ST students, popular rural development programme – Ama Gaon Ama Bikash, social security programme – Madhubabu Pension Yojana, housing and drinking water, electricity for all and special focus given to grounding of Make in Odisha commitments, for employment generation and revenue generation. We believe in actual work, not just promises and our work does the talking.”
Naveen Patnaik | Chief Minister
Figures not based on facts
The figures furnished while presenting the Budget should have been based on facts. Because the figures given by the government is not based on facts, we staged a walkout in protest.
It is crystal clear from the speech of the Finance Minister, the government wants to play politics over this Vote-on-Account as elections are around. Unnecessary facts have been presented. The government made statements by keeping an eye on elections. But, they did neither speak about development nor provide facts in that regard.
Narasingha Mishra | Leader of Oppn
Nothing new, stale
There is nothing new in this budget. It’s stale. The government has made some provisions to hoodwink people as elections are nearing. This budget is just a magic of figures as the government has no funds. They have been
dreaming of forming the next government. This budget will not help development of farmers, youths, women and the poor
in the state.
Rabi Narayan Naik | BJP legislator
