Amat presents Rs.80139.58 crore budget

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar: Odisha Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat presented a budget of Rs.80139.58 crore for 2014-15 for the State in the State Assembly on Tuesday.The budget for 2013-14 was of Rs.60303.09 crore.In his budget speech, Amat said that all the fiscal indicators were kept well within the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) targets for 2014-15.The Finance Minister said that the size of the budget has increased substantially due to higher allocation on the existing schemes and launching of several new schemes.“For example, the allocation for our flagship programme Mo Kudia has been enhanced by Rs.230 crore.Similarly the newly launched Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana has been provided with allocation of Rs.150 crore,” he said.Hike in TaxesStating that all these measures required extra revenues of the State, Amat announced a hike on the tax rate on liquor from 20 per cent to 25 per cent and also to restore the tax rate on petrol and diesel from 18 per cent to 20 per cent.These two measures will fetch additional revenue of Rs.375 crore per annum, Amat said.Presenting a separate budget for agriculture, Amat said that the allocation for agriculture and allied sectors in this budget was enhanced from Rs.7161.84 crore to in 2013-14 to Rs.9542.22crore in 2014015.“There is increase of about 33 per cent in budget outlay compared to last year,” he added.Allocation for Nabakalebar-2015The Finance Minister said that adequate focus was given in this budget for making the Nabakalebar-2015 a successful event.A sum of Rs.71.70 crore has been provided for improvement of roads for Nabakalebar.Apart from allocation of funds under various heads, a sum of Rs.73.70 crore has been provided for construction and renovation of bus stand at Malatipatpur in view of the coming Nabakalebar festival of Lord Jagannath, Amat informed.The Finance Minister said that in this budget he has tried to strike a balance between fiscal prudence and people’s expectations.