Odisha government presents 'landmark' ₹2 lakh crore budget for FY23

The Odisha government’s ₹2-lakh crore budget for the 2022-23 financial year, presented in the state assembly on Saturday (July 2), is focussed on strengthening infrastructure, developing education and health sectors and improving livelihoods of people.

“The budget is in line with our transformational agenda,” said Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, adding that he was optimistic that the budget will meet the aspirations of the people.

Odisha finance minister Niranjan Pujari claimed that the estimated outlay for the current financial year is the “highest” in the history of the Odisha budget, and is around 17.6 per cent more than the ₹1.7 lakh crore allocated for the last fiscal. He also said ₹1 lakh crore of the total budgetary estimates is the planned expenditure.

“Over the last twenty-two years, there had been a seventeen-fold increase in the size of the state budget and we are touching the landmark figure of ₹2 lakh crore this year,” Pujari said.

Odisha Budget highlights

The capital outlay in FY23 was estimated at ₹38,732 crore, which was around 5.4 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product. Additionally, loans and grants for creation of capital assets and other expenditure for capital formation together account for ₹11,933 crore, the minister said.

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“As a sign of our economic prosperity, the share of our own revenue in the state budget has exceeded the devolution of taxes from the central government by a substantial margin,” he said. While presenting the budget in the House, Pujari said the outlay is proposed to be financed mainly through revenue receipts of ₹1,63,967 crore and borrowing and other receipts of ₹36,033 crore.

The total revenue receipts for the 2022-23 year include the state’s share of central taxes at ₹36,978 crore, its own tax revenue at ₹46,000 crore, own non-tax revenue for ₹48,200 crore and grants from the Centre at ₹32,789 crore. Thus, the own revenue-GSDP ratio would be 13.20 per cent in 2022-23, he said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the state budget is “progressive, pro-poor and development-oriented”.

Objective of Odisha budget 2022-2023

The objective of the Odisha budget 2022-2023 is to create quality healthcare facilities, strengthen education ecosystem, improve life and livelihoods and women empowerment besides infrastructure development, said the CM.

The capital spending will increase by more than 56 per cent, which will foster growth, Patnaik said, adding that a separate budget for Mission Shakti with allocation of ₹2,000 crore will further deepen the state’s engagement with 70 lakh women. The finance minister proposed a ₹911-crore allocation for the Sports and Youth Services Department. ₹325 crore has been allocated for land acquisition, construction, renovation, expansion work at Rourkela, Jeypore, Utkela and Jharsuguda airports, and renovation of the Birashala airstrip.

An allocation of ₹547 crore has been proposed in the budget for development of rail projects in the state. Pujari said a budgetary provision of ₹12,624 crore has been proposed for the public health in the state, which is 25 per cent more than the previous budget.

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The Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana has received a budgetary support of ₹2,664 crore, while the FM allocated ₹1,874 crore for providing assistance to farmers under the KALIA scheme. He said ₹500 crore has been proposed for the state support to MGNREGS, a guaranteed rural employment scheme. Pujari also allocated ₹1,023 crore for the states food security-related programmes. He said ₹27,324 crore would be provided for the education and skill development sector.

Dubbing the state budget as “disappointing”, the Opposition BJP and Congress said “no new scheme to address unemployment problem and check migration” has been proposed. Pujari also informed the House that the state government will form a “Budget Stabilisation Fund” as a step to neutralise the losses due to sudden fall in mineral prices. Our initiative to create the Budget Stabilisation Fund will help in mitigating any revenue shock in future.

The state government had in March presented a vote-on-account for the first four months of 2022-23. The full-fledged budget could not be presented that time due the panchayat and urban polls in the state. The vote on account was required for expenditure on payment of salary, pension and other ongoing schemes and programmes, the minister had said.