Odisha Finance Minister tables Rs 2 lakh cr budget in House for 2022-23 financial year

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari today presented a full-fledged budget of Rs 2 lakh crore in the State Assembly for the 2022-2023 financial year.

Pujari said in his budget speech Rs 1 lakh crore out of the total budget will be Programme Budget.

The budget presented by the Finance Minister was in two components—Agriculture budget and General budget. Pujari first tabled the Agriculture budget and then presented the General budget in the House.

The budget expenses will be met from the revenue sources of Rs 1,63,967 crore and Rs 3,633 crore from loan and other sources, Pujari said in his budget speech.

The revenue sources include the State’s share from the taxes imposed by the Centre will be Rs 36,978 crore. The State’s own tax  revenue will be Rs 46,000 crore and non-tax revenue of Rs 48,200 crore. The Central allocation to the State will be Rs 32,789 crore, he said.

The State Finance Minister proposed a Rs 911-crore budgetary allocation to the Sports and Youth Services Department. While Rs 719 crore will be spent on sports development and management, and infrastructure development, Rs 115 crore will be allocated to promote sports education in the State. He informed the State will provide Rs 11 crore to the Khelo India programme.

Pujari allocated Rs 325 crore for land acquisition, construction, renovation, expansion work at Rourkela, Jeypore, Utkela and Jharsuguda airports, and renovation of the Birashala airstrip.

He said the Odisha government is emphasising on rail infra development in the State. An allocation of Rs 547 crore has been proposed in the budget 2022-23 for development of rail projects. Also, Rs 40 crore will be allocated towards additional capital investment for the joint venture companies such as the Odisha Rail Infrastructure Development Limited, Haridashpur-Paradeep Railway Company Ltd and Angul-Sukinda Railway Ltd.

Pujari said a budgetary allocation of Rs 12,624-crore has been proposed for the public health in the State, a 25% increase as compared to the last year budget allocation.

The ‘Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana’ has been allocated Rs 2,664 crore in the budget.

Pujari proposed an allocation of Rs 2,325 crore under the ‘Mukhyamantri Swasthya Seba Mission’ for the development of public health in the State.

During the budget speech Pujari said Rs 500 crore has been proposed towards the ‘State Support to MGNREGS’. He said Rs 2,001 crore has been proposed as the State’s share towards the MGNREGA scheme.

Mentioning that the World Food Programme (WFP) has announced to replicate Odisha’s food security programme as a world-class model, Pujari said he proposes an allocation of Rs 1,023 crore for the State’s food security-related activities.

For the energy sector in Odisha, Pujari proposed Rs 3,482 crore in his budget speech for the 2022-23 financial year.

He said Rs 1,511-crore allocation has been proposed for the revenue and registration administration.

The State Finance Minister proposed a Rs 3,262-crore allocation for the disaster management.

For the forest and environment sectors, Pujari said Rs 2,217 crore allocation will be made.

The Finance Minister informed that the State government will form a Budget Stabilization Fund as a step to neutralize the losses of the State budget due to sudden fall in mineral prices.

In his budget speech, Pujari proposed Rs 646 crore for the ‘Mo School Abhiyan’ and Rs 100 crore for the High School Transformation Scheme. He also said Rs 11 crore budgetary allocation has been proposed in 2022-23 financial year for the ‘Mo College Abhiyan’.

Pujari proposed Rs 3,581 crore budgetary allocation towards the ‘Samagra Sikshya’ scheme and  Rs 851 crore for the mid-day meal scheme.

He said Rs 27,324 crore will be allocated towards the Education and Skill Development sector.

The State Finance Minister proposed an allocation of Rs 302 crore for Electronics and IT department. He proposed an allocation of Rs 3,210 crore for the Disaster Risk Management Fund.

Pujari said Rs 7,551 crore will be allocated to the justice delivery, internal security, crime control, fire-related disaster management and control. The allocation includes Rs 46 crore for the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) and Dial-112.

He proposed an allocation of Rs 3,035 crore for Planning and Coordination department. The MLALAD fund will get Rs 441 crore.

Pujari said Rs 150 crore will be provided for the Special Problem Fund to undertake small and necessary projects at local level. Rs 250 crore will be allocated to the Biju KBK Yojana and Rs 42 crore were proposed for the Critical gap Fund.

The Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) has been allocated Rs 180 crore. In his budget specch, he proposed Rs 22 crore for the Biju Kandhamal and Gajapati Yojana.

He said Rs 4,010 crore will be spent under the District Mineral Fund (DMF) in 2022-23 financial year for creation of employment opportunities, ensure drinking water facility, healthcare, education, irrigation, road connectivity and infrastructure development.

The State Finance Minister said Rs 3,643 crore will be spent in eight mine-affected districts of the State for carrying out the OMBADC project.

Notably, the Odisha government had presented a vote-on-account budget of Rs 1.06 lakh crore for the first four months (April to July) of the financial year 2022-23 in March in view of panchayat and urban elections.