Bhubaneswar: Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari will present Rs 1.7 lakh crore annual budget for 2021-22 FY today.
Healthcare, agriculture and allied sectors, infrastructure, education and skill development, tourism and social welfare are likely to get a sizeable allocation in the state budget.
Reportedly, the size is likely to increase from Rs1.50lakh crore in 2020-21 to 1.70 lakh crore in 2021-22. Besides, the Dept-wise allocations also show health dept getting Rs 7700-cr in 2020-21. This year, it’s likely to cross Rs 10,000-cr.
In 2020-21, the highest resource allocation was for agriculture & allied sector (14.1%), Panchayati Raj (13%), SME (12.9%) & Health (5.7%).
As such, the debt burden on Odisha is likely to touch Rs 1.06 lakh crore by the end of the 2020-21 financial year. It is likely to climb up to over Rs 1.35 lakh crore in the next fiscal because of several commitments of the government. The precarious economic situation has been admitted by the State government in its Economic Survey for 2021-22 in which it has maintained that only 49.06 pc of the estimated revenue receipts could be achieved indicating a shortfall of 50.94 pc. The State government has also fallen 42.91 pc short in GST collection by the end of December, 2020.
Besides, the decline in vertical share and horizontal share for Odisha in 15th Finance Commission recommendations will also affect the economy there by impacting the budget making. Odisha is likely to lose around Rs 10,000 crore because of the 15th Finance Commission recommendations.
