Odisha Finance Minister Presents Rs 2.55 Lakh Crore Budget for 2024-25
Bhubaneswar: Odisha finance minister Bikram Keshari Arukha on Thursday presented the Annual Budget (Vote-on-Account) for 2024‐25 in the State Assembly with an outlay of Rs 2,55,000 crore, which is about 11 per cent more than 2023-24 budget.
The FM has earmarked a programme expenditure of 1,40,000 for the FY 2024-25. Of this Rs 63,400 crore has been provided in the Vote-on-Account. Similarly, the administrative expenditure has been pegged at Rs 1,03,500 47,660, up from Rs 94,000 allocated in 2023-23 budget.
No new schemes or initiatives have been declared by the FM in the budget.
“Since it is Vote-on-Account, no new initiatives have been announced. Financial stability has given us the opportunity to allocate adequate funds to various departments,” the FM said in the post-budget presentation press conference.
The highest resource allocation of Rs 33,865 crore has been proposed for the school and mass education department. It constitutes 9.71 per cent share in total budget size for the financial year 2024-25. The other departments which have got maximum allocations are the panchayati raj department Rs 22,543 crore (8.84 per cent), health and family welfare Rs 19,729 crore (7.74 per cent), water resources Rs 13,267 crore (5.20 per cent) and planning and convergence Rs 12,043 crore (4.72 per cent).
While presenting the interim budget, Arukha said that as per 2023-24 advance estimates, Odisha’s economy is likely to register a growth of 8.5 per cent against the national average of 7.3 per cent.
According to the state finance minister, the overall food production in Odisha has doubled in the last 22 years. The state government implemented the KALIA scheme to speed up agricultural development and alleviate poverty. So far, 43.88 lakh small and 18.93 lakh landless farmers’ families have been benefited under the scheme.
Similarly, the state government undertook the Millets Mission which has brought considerable improvement in the lives of around 5 lakh farmers. In his speech, Arukha said that there has been considerable improvement in the health sector and health for all is top priority for the state government. A target has been set for the development of 1,858 health centres in the next 5 years with an outlay of Rs 3,389 crore.