BHUBANESWAR: Aiming to give a big push to the pandemic-hit economy, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on Saturday presented a full-fledged budget of Rs 2 lakh crore for 2022-23 expecting a growth rate of 8 to 8.5 per cent during the current fiscal.
The budget size remains the same as what was projected on March 30, when the State government went for a vote on account for the first four months of the financial year. However, the projected growth, which will be above the national growth estimates, hinges on higher government spending and revival of the economy post Covid-19 pandemic.
The Finance Minister, though, has been cautious over the revival of the economy and announced to set up a Budget Stabilisation Fund (BSF) of Rs 10,000 crore to mitigate the revenue shocks in future. Odisha is the first State in the country to take such an initiative.
Though the programme expenditure remains the same at Rs 1 lakh crore, the administrative expenditure has been slashed from Rs 89,624 crore to Rs 74,261 crore. The administrative expenditure includes provision of Rs 29,248 crore, Rs 18,221 crore, Rs 8,467 crore and Rs 5,856 crore towards salaries, pension, interest payment and maintenance of capital assets respectively.
The outlay for disaster risk management remains the same at Rs 3,210 crore while transfers from the State will be Rs 7,200 crore. The capital outlay has been projected at Rs 38,732 crore which is about 5.4 per cent of GSDP and 56 per cent increase over the previous year. Additionally, loans and advances, grants for creation of capital assets and other expenditure for capital formation together account for Rs 11,933 crore, which is an additional 1.7 per cent of GSDP.
Pujari proposed to finance the budget mainly through revenue receipts of Rs 1,63,967 crore and borrowing and other receipts of Rs 36,033 crore. The revenue receipts include the State’s share in Central taxes of Rs 36,978 crore, State’s own tax revenue of Rs 46,000 crore, own non-tax revenue for Rs 48,200 crore and grants from Centre of Rs 32,789 crore.
Pujari said, “As a sign of our economic prosperity, the share of our own revenue in the budget has exceeded the devolution from the Centre by a substantial margin. Thus, the Own Revenue/GSDP ratio would be 13.20 per cent in 2022-23.”
To achieve the high growth rate, several key social sectors have been allocated higher allocation. Social sector expenditure has been pegged at 34 per cent of the total budget while development sectors have been provided the rest of the funds.
While Rs 12,624 crore has been allotted for the health sector, an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year, housing has got Rs 6,406 crore, an increase of 97 per cent. In a bid to make Odisha a sports hub, Rs 911 crore has been provided for development of sports, an increase of 100 per cent. Similarly, energy, and industries and MSME have got provision of Rs 3,497 crore and Rs 1,269 crore respectively. The allocation for religious and cultural places is Rs 1,970 crore, an increase of 97 per cent.
Allocation for agriculture and allied sectors increased to Rs 21,166 crore in the 2022-23 budget, from Rs 20,344 crore that was projected in the vote-on-account. However, higher government spending will lead to a high debt burden of Rs 1,12,400 crore which is 15.6 per cent of the GSDP. The fiscal deficit projected in the budget will be Rs 21,588 crore, 3 per cent of the GSDP.
Several key schemes of the State government including KALIA and Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) have received higher allocation. While KALIA has been provided Rs 1,874 crore, the BSKY has received Rs 2,664 crore. Besides, Rs 2,325 crore has been provided under Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission for upgradation of healthcare facilities across the State.