Odisha presents 1.2 lakh crore budget for 2018-19 in Assembly

NEW DELHI: The Odisha government presented a Rs 1,20,028 crore budget for 2018-19 in the state Assembly with a focus on rural development and empowerment of youth and women.nnFinance Minister S B Behera also presented a separate agriculture budget worth Rs 16,765 crore, around 134 per cent more than the Rs 7,162 provided in the first farm budget in 2013-14.nnThe minister further announced that about Rs 8,000 crore is invested through extra budgetary resources every year to make timely payment to farmers towards paddy procurement.nnOf the total expenditure of Rs 1,20,026 crore, the capital outlay for 2018-19 is Rs 24,567 crore which is about 5.5 per cent of the GSDP, Behera said adding loans and advances, grants for creation of capital assets and other expenditure for capital formation together accounts for Rs 9,090 crore (which is 2.1 per cent of the GSDP).nnThe allocation for the expenditure programme exceeds half of the total annual budget, the finance minister said.nn”The outlay is proposed to be financed mainly through revenue receipts of Rs 1,00,200 crore and borrowing and other receipts of Rs 19,678 crore,” Behera said.nnExplaining the state’s revenue receipts for 2018-19, Behera said it included the state’s share in central taxes of Rs 36,587 crore.nnThe state’s own tax is Rs 28,550 crore while non-tax revenue is Rs 10,300 crore and grants from Centre has been calculated at rs 24,764 crore.nnAs there is a steady growth in both tax and non-tax revenue, Behera did not propose any new tax in 2018-19. He, however, did not rule out hike in the rate of existing taxes.nnHe pointed out that total administrative expenditure is estimated at Rs 50,761 crore in 2018-19 including Rs 22,021 crore for salaries, Rs 11,912 crore for pension, Rs 5,500 crore for interest payment and Rs 4,400 crore for maintenance of capital assets.nnBehera said total programme expenditure outlay for the 2018-19 fiscal will be Rs 67,000 crore which included an outlay of 62,000 for government sector and Rs 5,000 crore for public sector undertakings.nnAfter finance department which got Rs 24.530.17 crore, Behera allocated maxium amount of 14,487.10 crore for school and mass education department followed by Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water (Rs 13,725 crore), Water Resources (Rs 10,196.05 crore), Rural Development (Rs 5582.46 crore and Home (Rs 5,274 crore).nnWhile Behera made allocations for different ongoing programmes, he proposed introduction of a new scheme “Ama Ghare LED Light” Karyakram in which each poor household will be provided with four LED lamps free of cost. He proposed an allocation of Rs 125 crore for the new scheme.nnThe finance minister also made provision of an all-time high outlay of Rs 400 crore for development of Railway Projects in the state.nn”This amount will be provided towards state contribution for Khurda-Bolangir, Nabarangpur-Jeypore and Jeypore-Malkangiri new rail line projects,” Behera said.nnHe said the government has also decided to infuse 26 per cent equity in commercially viable railway projects in the state to give a boost to the completion of projects of strategic importance through SPVs.nnHailing the budget as “pro-people, pro-poor and balanced with strong focus on development,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said it will foster equitable and inclusive growth. I hope the budget will fulfil aspiration of people”.nnOpposition Congress and BJP alleged that the budget had nothing for the welfare of poor people.nnLeader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra of Congress criticized the budget and termed it as anti-farmer and anti-poor.nnBJP MLA Pradip Purohit said: “Farmers will not get any benefit from the budget and their problems remain unaddressed.nnSource: Press Trust of India