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Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on Friday presented the annual budget of Rs 2.30 lakh crore for the year 2023-24 in the state Assembly. The outlay is 15 per cent more than the full-fledged budget of 2022-23.

Pujari said the programme budget has been increased by 35 times from Rs 3,538 crore in 2000-01 to Rs.1,25,000 crore in 2023-24 budget estimates. The allocation for the programme expenditure is about 54 per cent of the total budgetary outlay.

Similarly, capital outlay has gone up by more than 60 times from Rs 834 crore to Rs 51,683 crore during the same period. The proposed capital outlay is about 6 per cent of GSDP, he said.

The administrative expenditure is proposed at Rs 94,000 crore in 2023-24, which includes Rs 32,449 crore for salaries, Rs 19,967 crore for pension, Rs 7,241 crore for interest payment and Rs 13,464 crore for maintenance of capital assets.

The outlay for disaster response funds will be Rs 3,700 crore, while transfers from the state will have an outlay of Rs 7,300 crore.

Additionally, loans and advances, grants for creation of capital assets and other expenditure for capital formation together account for Rs 12,421 crore, which is 1.4 per cent of the GSDP, he stated.

The total budget outlay is proposed to be financed through revenue receipts of Rs 1,84,500 crore and borrowing and other receipts of Rs 45,500 crore.

Total revenue receipts for the year 2023-24 include the state's share in the Central taxes of Rs 46,251 crore, state's own tax of Rs 53,000 crore, own non-tax revenue of Rs 52,500 crore and grants from the Centre for Rs 32,749 crore.

Presenting the agriculture budget with an outlay of Rs 24,829 crore, Pujari said Odisha is predominantly an agrarian economy with agriculture and allied activities constituting 22.5 per cent in Gross State Value Added (GSVA).

The agriculture budget outlay of Rs 24,829 crore for 2023-24 is 20 percent more than last year and three times the budget estimate during 2016-17, he said.

Similarly, a total sum of Rs 16,048 crore has been proposed for public health care, which is an increase of about 27 per cent over the previous year and about three times the allocation in 2017-18.

For the development of health care infrastructure, an amount of Rs 3,003 crore has been proposed in the budget under the State Scheme Mukhyamantri Swasthya Seva Mission, which includes Rs 1,400 crore for redevelopment of SCB Medical College and Hospitals.

Similarly, the total budget allocation of Rs 22,528 crore has been made for the school and mass education department, while Rs 986 crore for Skill Development & Technical Education, which is 22 per cent higher than the previous year's provision, and Rs 2,554 crore for the Department of Mission Shakti which is 27 per cent more over the estimation for 2022-23.

Pujari announced a new scheme, Mission Shakti Scooter Yojana, with a budgetary allotment of Rs 50 crore for the Financial Year, 2023-24.

Under the Mukhyamantri Medhabi Chatra Protsahan Yojana, an outlay of Rs 811 crore is proposed for disbursement of scholarships to more than 23 lakh students of which 60 per cent are girls.

The state government has also proposed to invest more than Rs 13,215 crore during the year 2023-24 for piped drinking water from budget and off- budget sources, he said.

In 2023-24, the Works department will take up double-laning of about 3,000 km of roads with improved riding quality at a cost of Rs 4,600 crore.

Further, the state has provided Rs 2,071 crore for construction of 6,000 km of roads under Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana and Rs 1,450 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

"When the Chief Minister took over the reins of the state in 2000, Odisha was in such a severe financial crisis that it was unable to even pay salaries and pensions regularly. Today, two decades later, we are among the very few states that are revenue surplus and capable of large-scale investments in people-centric and growth- oriented programmes," Pujari said in his budget speech.

This transformation has been possible due to a futuristic and people-oriented model of governance combined with the vision of our Chief Minister towards making Odisha a developed state, he added