Samikhsya Bureau
Odisha finance minister Niranjan Pujari on Friday presented a Rs.1,39,000 crore budget in the state assembly for the financial year 2019-2020 with special focus on agriculture, education, health sector and schemes for development of SC and ST people.
Like the previous years, the budget was presented in two parts — Agriculture Budget and General Budget. Pujari claimed that the present outlay of the budget was about 15.8 per cent higher than the annual budget 2018-2019.
The budget has an outlay of Rs.70,600 crore for programme expenditure, Rs.20,714 crore for agriculture and allied sectors, Rs.19,492 crore for education and skill sector, Rs.6779 crore for health sector and Rs.23,760 crore for development of SCs and STs for identified schemes in the programme budget.
Pujari claimed that the outlay for development expenditure was more than 75 per cent of the total budget and the revenue surplus projects at 1.21 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) while the fiscal deficit had been kept within the prescribed limit of 3.49 per cent of the GSDP.
He said the outlay was proposed to be financed mainly through revenue receipts of Rs.1.15266 crore and borrowing and other receipts of Rs.23,734 crore.
The budget, Pujari said, focused on boosting agriculture production and productivity,expanding irrigation, improving healthcare education, providing safe drinking water sanitation and better livelihood opportunities.
The finance minister said Odisha’s economy was expected to grow at the rate of 8.35 per cent in 2018-19 surpassing all India growth rate of 7.2 per cent. The state, he said, had a robust average growth of 8 per cent in last six years compared to national average of 7.1 per cent.
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 2019-2020, he said.
Pujari said with substantial increase in investment in physical infrastructure, the government intended to increase the economic activities and attract manufacturing and service industries especially in the MSME sector.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik hailed the budget as pro-poor, pro-farmer, pro-women and growth oriented. The budget, he said, had reflected the aspirations of the people.
Patnaik said two of the major manifesto promises – to expand KALIA and to include all eligible farmers, landless labourers and share croppers and to provide health coverage to women up to Rs.10 lakh have been fulfilled.
While the KALIA scheme was enlarged to cover 75 lakh farmers, women will get medical assistance up to Rs.10 lakh, the highest in the country under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yoajana, he said.
Patnaik said he was happy to note that funds have been allocated for Odia university and restoration works for Cyclone Fani. He said Rs.100 crore has been allocated for Jagga Mission to empower slum dwellers and Rs.100 crore for Mission Shakti Ghar at gram panchayat level.
The chief minister said Odisha’s economy has grown faster than the national average over last six years and congratulated the finance minister for presenting a progressive budget with focus on development to accelerate the inclusive growth.
On the other hand, BJP’s Pradipta Nayak, leader of the opposition in the assembly, said that the budget was hopeless and there was nothing new in it. “The state government has focused on women only with an eye of their votes, but there is nothing in it to address unemployment and problems at the grassroots.
Leader of the Congress legislative party Narasingha Mishra termed the budget as “dissapointing” and “anti-farmer”. He said that out of the total Rs.1.39 lakh crore in the budget, the state government’s own money is just Rs.45,000 crore while the rest would be taken as loan from outside sources. He said cash benefit for farmers would not do any good to them. The government should increase the price of paddy to Rs.2,500 from the present Rs.1,750 if it really cared for farmers.
