Odisha govt presents vote-on-account of Rs 1.06 lakh cr

Bhubaneswar, March 30 Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on Wednesday presented a vote-on-account of Rs 1.06 lakh crore for the first four months (April to July) of the next financial year 2022-23.

Keeping in view the requirement of funds for expenditure on the payment of salary, pension, interest and other on-going scheme and programmes, the Finance Minister has proposed a sum of Rs 1,06,498 crore in the vote-on-account for seeking approval of the House to defray expenses during April to July, 2022.

The government has opted for a vote-on-account instead of the regular budget in view of the model code of conduct imposed due to the recent rural and urban elections in the state, said Pujari.

The vote-on-account would cover 100 per cent of budget estimates for calamity and election related expenses and 50 per cent of budget estimates for all other schemes, he said.

"We are grateful to the people of the state for having reposed their faith on us in the recently held rural and urban election. This has motivated us to continue with our vision of building a New Odisha-Empowered Odisha," he said.

Stating the budget estimates for the entire year of 2022-23 envisage an expenditure of Rs 2 lakh crore, the Minister said total administrative expenditure is estimated at Rs 89,620 crore including Rs 29,248 crore for salaries, Rs 18,221 crore for pension, Rs 8,467 crore for interest payment and Rs 5,856 crore for maintenance of capital assets.

The total programme expenditure outlay for the financial year 2022-23 will be Rs 1,10,000 crore, which is 33 per cent higher than that of 2021-22. Similarly, the outlay for disaster response funds will be Rs 3,210 crore while transfers from state to the local bodies will have an outlay of Rs 7,170 crore, he pointed out.

The capital outlay for the next financial year will be Rs 40,011 crore, which is about 5.6 per cent of GSDP. This is a 56 per cent jump over current year's allocation, he said.

The revenue receipt of the financial year 2022-23 has been worked out at Rs 1,63,967 crore and the revenue expenditure estimated at Rs 1,44,349 crore.

The estimated revenue surplus is of the order of Rs 19,618 crore, which would be 2.7 per cent of GSDP. The estimated fiscal deficit of Rs 21,588 crore would amount to 3 per cent of GSDP, Pujari said in his budget speech.

Provision of Rs 12,241 crore has been made for overall health spending of the State, while Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated for Mission Shakti programme and Rs 26,492 crore for education sector during 2022-23.

Similarly, Rs 20,344 crore has been estimated for different schemes in agriculture and allied sector, which includes Rs 1,874 crore of direct benefit transfers under KALIA scheme, Rs 688 crore under crop production management, Rs 907 crore of interest subvention to farmers, Rs 600 crore of premium subsidy under PM Fasal Bima Yojana and Rs 8,523 crore of total outlays for different schemes under irrigation sector, he added.

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