While the State Finance Department is all eager to list up proposals and allocations for an interim Budget, its finalisation only depends on the Union Government Budget proposals.
Whether there will be a Vote-on-Account or a full-fledged Budget, that would be known only after it is presented in the Parliament on February 1 by Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, which is being watched with bated breath.
As of now, Finance Minister Shashi Bhushan Behera has held several rounds of talks with senior officials regarding proposed Interim Budget to be presented on February 7 in the State Assembly.
According to officials an Interim Budget would be presented as the tenure of the present Government is ending on June 11. The Budget would be presented for a period of three months (April-May-June) after which the next Government will present a full-fledged Budget in July.
Now, senior officials of the State Government are waiting for the fiscal proposals of the Union Government to finalise the State’s Interim Budget, which would be known only on February 1.
Sources said BJP national leaders are taking a view that Vote On Account should be like any full-fledged Budget and sops should be there for farmers and weaker sections as well as the middleclass people, as elections are ahead.
After February 1, the State Government would also decide its next course of action, whether or not to go for an Interim Budget with sops for various sections like women, weaker section, farmers and other core group of voters.
It is expected that a meeting of the Council of Ministers would be convened after February 1 to give final shape to the Interim Budget.
If Union Government announces sops for various groups in its proposals, then the State Government will be adopting similar lines to reach out to the masses through sops, said a political analyst.