By Bizodisha Bureau,  Bhubaneswar, June 28, 2019: Odisha finance minister, Niranjan Pujari Friday presented a revenue surplus and tax-free Budget, pegging the outgo at Rs 1.39 lakh crore for 2019-20, up by 16 per cent over FY19.

Keeping the election eve sops announced by the Naveen Patnaik government, the Budget has made an attempt to balance fiscal discipline with financing a host of social security and welfare schemes. In fact, the budget has kept the fiscal deficit for FY20 virtually on the borderline with 3.49 per cent within the limit of 3.5 per cent mandated under Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

The Budget forecasts a growth rate of 8-8.5 per cent for the state Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), continuing the high growth trajectory over the last six years at a faster rate than states such as Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.

“Odisha’s economy is expected to grow at the rate of 8.35 per cent in 2018-19 surpassing all India growth rate of 7.2 per cent. This comes on top of a robust average growth of more than 8 per cent in last six years compared to national average of about 7.1 per cent”, Pujari said in his speech.

The outlay is proposed to be financed mainly through revenue receipts of Rs 1.15 lakh crore and borrowing and other receipts of Rs 23,734 crore. The state’s own tax/GSDP ratio is pegged at 6.1 per cent in 2019-20. The outstanding debt to GSDP ratio is estimated at 19.7 per cent at the end of FY20 which is below the FRBM limit of 25 per cent. The budget outlay is split into total programme expenditure (Rs 74,600 crore) and administrative expenditure estimated at Rs 57,310 crore.

“This budget focuses on borrowing agriculture production and productivity, expanding irrigation, improving health care, education and skills for our people, investing in the youth and providing safe drinking water, sanitation, better livelihood opportunities, social security, electricity and rural connectivity. With substantial increase in investment in physical infrastructure we intend to increase economic activities and attract manufacturing and service industries and service industries”, the finance minister Niranjan Pujari added.

Continuing the tradition since 2013-14, the Odisha government presented an exclusive budget for agriculture with an outlay of Rs 20,714 crore for FY20. “Agriculture remains the lifeline of our economy contributing to our food security and providing livelihood to a vast majority of our people”, Pujari said earmarking Rs 5611 crore for the state government’s much lauded Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation or KALIA scheme for 2019-20.

Besides the budgeted outlay, about Rs 8000 crore will be invested through extra budgetary resources every year to ensure timely payments to farmers for paddy procurement.

In this fiscal, the state has set a target to create additional irrigation potential of 265,000 hectares. To boost farm credit, the budget has set aside Rs 800 crore for interest subvention on crop loans for this fiscal.

The Budget has significant allocations for flagship schemes and other programmes- Madhubabu Pension Yojana (Rs 2,120 crore), MAMATA scheme Rs (305 crore), Samagra Sikhsya (Rs 2,250 crore), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (Rs 2900 crore), Smart City Mission (Rs 400 crore), Biju Krushak Yojana (Rs 420 crore), Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission (Rs 578 crore) and Ama Gaon Ama Bikash Yojana (Rs 400 crore) to name a few.

The Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), another flagship programme has received an allocation of Rs 1203 crore.

Faced with the latest natural disaster, Fani – a very severe cyclonic storm last month, the Budget hints at disaster resilient power infrastructure. Rs 100 crore has been provisioned for Odisha Skill Development Project with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Moreover, Rs 237 crore has been set aside for industries and attracting investment.