LUCKNOW: Presenting the biggest ever budget, worth over Rs 6.90 lakh crore, in the history of Uttar Pradesh for 2023-24 and the second of Yogi government 2.0 on Wednesday, State Finance Minister Suresh Khanna claimed that it would give a robust push to infra growth, welfare schemes and job creation besides taking adequate care of youths, women, farmers and deprived classes of the society.
“With a focus on infrastructure development for youth empowerment by creating more and more job opportunities, the UP budget 2023-24 is also for strengthening farmers and giving honour to women,” said the UP Finance Minister.
While unveiling the budget, Khanna announced a 16.8 per cent growth in state GDP and a downslide in the employment rate to 4.2 per cent against over 14 per cent in 2016-17.
He claimed that the state economy painted an encouraging picture even amid the ‘global recession’ following the pandemic.
"The state's contribution to the country's GDP is more than 8 per cent. In the year 2021- 22, a growth of 16.8 per cent has been registered in the Gross State Domestic Product, which was higher than the country's growth rate," the minister said.
The rate of growth in GSDP for the financial year 2023-2024 has been pegged at 19 per cent. In the era of global recession, the growth rate of the state's economy is encouraging. Before 2017, the unemployment rate was 14.4 per cent, today it has come down to about 4.2 per cent," the minister added.
With the announcement of new schemes worth Rs 32721 crore in the UP budget-2023-24, the initial portion of Khanna’s speech was replete with couplets and poetry throughout. It carried references to the recently held Global Investors Summit which witnessed the signing of over 19,000 MoUs worth about Rs 33.50 lakh crore intended for investment.
The 2023 UP budget assumes significance as it is an attempt by the Yogi government to woo different sections of society ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections slated for April-May 2024. It was the seventh budget of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh since 2017 when it assumed power defeating Samajwadi Party.
The first budget of the second tenure of the Yogi government was to the tune of Rs 6.15 lakh crore and it was presented on May 26, 2022. It was followed by a supplementary budget of Rs 33,769.55 crore on December 5, 2022, taking the total size of the UP budget in 2022-2023 to Rs 6.50 lakh crore.