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Informist, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025

 

By Priyasmita dutta

 

NEW DELHI – Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi presented the Budget for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar) in the State Assembly on Monday, and rewarded the voters who brought the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to power in the eastern state after Naveen Patnaik's 25-year-long stint. Majhi, who assumed the charge of Chief Minister on Jun. 12, announced 16 new schemes and initiatives, while sticking to fiscal discipline.

 

"As per the advance estimate for the year 2024-25, the State economy has grown at 7.2% in real terms as compared to national growth rate of 6.4%. In medium term, the State economy is projected to grow at a rate higher than 8%," Majhi said at the very start of his Budget speech. "Our government has embarked on the journey of Samrudhha Odisha by 2036, by then we aspire to be a $500 billion economy."

 

The Budget pegged the state's fiscal deficit at 3.2% of gross state domestic product for FY26, slightly higher than the revised estimate of 3.1% of GSDP this year. The state's market borrowing in FY26 is projected to be INR 174.63 billion, threefold of the revised estimate for FY25 at INR 57.80 billion. Even if the year-on-year growth in market borrowing looks sharply high, the state typically ends up raising much lower from the market than projected. The revised INR 57.80 billion figure for FY25, is sharply lower than the Budget estimate of INR 157.80 billion. 

 

As per the state's Budget documents, Odisha's debt to GSDP ratio is projected at 12.7% in FY26. The future debt outlook of Odisha looks to be within the sustainable level. "In the medium term, the total debt to GSDP ratio of the State is projected to reach to a level of 15.7% in the financial year 2029-30, which will be within the stipulated limit of 25% also," it said.

 

The total expenditure for FY26 is projected at INR 2.90 trillion, up 9.4% on year. Out of this, revenue expenditure for FY26 is pegged at INR 2.0 trillion, up 7.6% from the revised estimate of INR 1.86 trillion for FY25. This includes the expenditure on salaries, pensions, interest, grants, and subsidies. The revised estimate for revenue expenditure in FY25 is higher than the Budget estimate by INR 25.02 billion.

 

The capital expenditure for FY26 is projected at INR 898 billion, up 13.8% compared to the revised estimate of INR 789.35 billion for FY25. The revised capital spending outlay is 3.1% lower than the Budget estimate.

 

Within its expenses, Odisha government focussed its spending on eight broad sectos – with outlay on education being 14.2% of total Budget size, followed by rural development getting 13.5%, agriculture making up 11.6%, social security being 8.4%, healthcare sector taking up 8.2%, women-related spending to the tune of 6.2%, irrigation and flood control making up 5.6% of Budget size and lastly, urban development being 3.4% of total spending. Budgetary details of Odisha's 16 new schemes attached in the table below.

 

While the BJP-led government announced a host of new measures and increased scope of older schemes, the Opposition criticised the government for renaming and revamping Biju Janata Dal's schemes and initiatives as "new projects". A very large sum of money from the last budget has still not been spent, former chief minister Naveen Patnaik told the media after the Budget was presented. "To announce large sums of money in the budget is not important, what has to be done is the expenditure of those sums for the development of our state," he said. "This is a Budget which has to be spent, we will watch and see what is to be done," Patnaik, President of BJD and Leader of Opposition, added.

 

On the revenue side, Majhi, who also holds the portfolio of finance department, projected the revenue receipts for FY26 at INR 2.32 trillion, 8.4% higher than the revised estimate for FY25. The state's own tax revenue is seen growing 10% on year to INR 660 billion, while the state's non-tax revenue is seen growing only 3.4% on year to INR 600 billion. 

 

In its own tax revenues, goods and services tax and sales tax make up the majority chunk, which are seen growing 8.1% and 12.4% in FY26, respectively, compared to the revised estimate for FY25. In absolute terms, they are projected at INR 281.75 billion and INR 159.70 billion, respectively. "Odisha has been successfully meeting all its committed expenditure from its own revenue," its budget documents said.

 

Within its non-tax revenues, the mineral-rich state gets huge collections from mining royalty. For FY26, it is projected at INR 474.68 billion, up 1.9% on year. Transfer from the Union government to Odisha in FY26 is projected at INR 644.08 billion, while grants are projected at INR 415.92 billion.

 

 

New Schemes	Allocations
Antyodaya Gruha Yojana	INR  26.03  billion
Atal Bus Stand	INR 12.66 billion
Samrudha Sahara	INR 4.08 billion
Swaccha Odisha	INR 2.61 billion
Northern Odisha Development Council	INR 2 billion
Sourthern Odisha Developement Council	INR 2 billion
Subhadra Surakhya	INR 1.52 billion
Odisha Pusti Mission	INR 1 billion
Saheed Laxman Nayak Adarsh Vidyalaya	INR 1 billion
Bakulabana Unnayan	INR 500 million
Ama Similipal Yojana	INR 500 million
Model Mandi	INR 500 million
Shri Jagannath Darshan Yojana	INR 300 million
Aame Padhiba Aama Bhasare	INR 250 million
Mukhyamantri kanya Bibhaha Yojana	INR 120 million
Odia Diaspora: O-Sampark	INr 100 million

 

 

End

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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