Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat presented the Annual Budget of Rs 94,052.65 crore, including Agriculture Budget of Rs 13,181.89 crore, for 2016-17 fiscal in the State Assembly on Thursday.
The Budget includes Non-Plan expenditure of Rs 48,096.49 crore and Plan outlay of Rs 50,000 crore.
However, the gross provision in the Budget stood at Rs 98, 416.93 crore which includes recoveries and accounting adjustments, said Amat.
The Non-Plan expenditure includes Rs 18,800 crore for salaries, Rs 9, 500 crore for pension, Rs 4,650 crore for interest payment and Rs 4,977.35 crore for maintenance of capital assets. Similarly, the Annual Plan outlay comprises Rs 45,000 crore for the Government sector and Rs 4,400 crore for Public Sector Undertakings.
The outlay for the Central Plan would be Rs 311.33 crore and the outlay for Centrally sponsored Plan is 44.83 crore, informed the Finance Minister.
Amat said the Government has proposed to enhance the capital outlay in 2016-17 to Rs 16,749.70 crore, which is about 4.37 per cent of the GSDP.
Regarding finance source of the Budget, Amat informed that the Government estimates to get Rs 78,126.72 crore as revenue receipts, Rs 185.15 crore as recovery of loans and advances and Rs 15,740.78 crore as borrowing and other receipts.
The total revenue receipts include State’s share in Central taxes for Rs 26,567.56 crore, State’s own tax for Rs 23,200 crore, own nontax revenue for Rs 9822.93 crore and Central grants of Rs 18,536.23 crore.
Of the total outlay of Rs 98,416.93 crore, an allocation of Rs 33,823.10 crore has been earmarked for social sector, an increase of 16.10 per cent in comparison to the last fiscal.
School and Mass Education and Higher Education Departments have been allocated Rs 13, 396.35 crore, a significant 13.61 per cent of the total outlay.
Amat announced to launch a new scheme called ‘Biju Kanya Ratna Yojana’ in Dhenkanal, Angul and Ganjam districts initially. Rs 2 crore was allocated in the scheme.
A provision of Rs 515 crore was made for construction of the proposed five Government medical colleges in Balangir, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Baleswar and Puri districts. Total amount of Rs 4,771.87 crore has been proposed for the Health and Family Welfare Department.
Similarly, Rs 333.33 crore has been allocated for Smart City Mission, the Finance Minister said.
The SC and ST Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department was allocated Rs 2,835.12 crore and Women and Child Welfare Department Rs 4,693.55 crore. Similarly, Rs 8,455.95 crore has been proposed for the Panchayati Raj Department.
Besides, Rs 4 crore was proposed for the development of transgenders. He made a provision of Rs 1 crore for the Odisha Bhasa Pratishan to prepare two versions of Odia Bhasa Kosha.
Stating that the Government is committed to covert all the Kutcha houses into Pucca ones by 2019, Amat said a sum of Rs 1,688.26 crore has been proposed for the Indira Awas Yojana for construction of 1.71 new houses and Rs 700 crore under the Biju Pucca Ghar for construction of 93,000 houses in 2016-17.
Of Rs 6489.86 crore proposed for the Rural Development Department, Rs 2,300 crore will be spent for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana under which construction of a total of 3,200 km of roads would be taken up, the Minister added.
The outlay for infrastructure development in different departments has been increased from Rs 14,232.58 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 17,172 crore in 2016-17, the Minister said.
Presenting the Agriculture Budget, Amat said the Government has to strengthen irrigation system to protect farm produce from natural hazards. It has been targeted to create irrigation facility for an additional 2.57 lakh hectares of land in 2016-17, he said.
Besides, he said the Government aims to construct an additional 4,000 check dams in the ensuing financial year.
The Minster focused on millet farming in Odisha to increase production of cereal crops.
“Millets are highly nutritious and have several health benefits. Millet farming, which needs less water in comparison to other crops, will be encouraged in tribal-dominated areas,” he said.
To make the State self-reliant in fish and poultry production, Amat said fish production in Odisha would be increased from 7.79 lakh tonne to 7.85 lakh tonne in 2016-17.
Amat has proposed an allocation of Rs 100 crore for godowns for stock of agricultural produces. The Water Resources Department has received a whopping provision of Rs 7241.66 crore in the Agriculture Budget.