BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on Monday praised the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for ‘positive points’ such as ‘focus on capital investment to push growth’. At the same time, he rued that the state’s share in central taxes had lessened by Rs 10,840 crore from estimates made earlier.
Stating that the first Budget in the post-Covid era had to address many new challenges, Naveen applauded the government for the reintroduction of development financial institutions and allocations for Covid vaccine. “Industry and sector-specific interventions offer hope if matched with allocation,” he said. Appreciating the ‘bold decision to expand fiscal deficit to provide growth impetus’, Naveen said, “The Budget has medium-term and long-term vision for a self-reliant India.”
Naveen said Odisha would be hit by the drastic reduction of the state’s share in central taxes for the current year. As per estimates given by the Centre earlier, the state was to get Rs 36,299.74 crore as its share in central taxes. Due to lower tax revenue collection, the share has gone down to Rs 25,459 crore.
The chief minister also said Odisha should have got capital investments in railways and highways. “There is a need to increase allocation in social assistance programmes and quantum of transfers to local bodies. Centralization of revenue by introduction of cess in petrol and diesel will weaken the Centre-state fiscal balance,” he said.
Naveen said banks had to be made accountable to extend credit to women, farmers and MSMEs. He added that he was delighted to see the Budget focus on women’s empowerment. “After Odisha’s Mamata scheme was adopted by the Centre from 2011-2012, the replication of our state’s flagship women’s empowerment initiative Mission Shakti clearly shows that Odisha sets the benchmark for the nation. I am hopeful that after Mamata and Mission Shakti, the next logical step towards women’s empowerment would be reservation for them in the Lok Sabha and the assemblies,” he said.
Naveen said he was happy to note that the Union Budget had turned ‘green’ by being digitised, something the state has been following since last year.
Steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Odisha would have the lion’s share of allocation to different sectors. “Mission Poshan 2.0, announced in the Budget to focus on strengthening nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcome across 112 aspirational districts will help 10 districts in the state,” he said. The modern fishing harbour in Paradip would immensely benefit fishermen in the state, which will also get priority in getting a textile park out of the seven to come up in three years, he added.
Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said the Budget had nothing to help increase earning of the poor and the middle class. “It is a disappointing budget meant to help a handful of corporate houses,” he said.