With an eye on COVID preparedness, food and social security, livelihood generation and a host of other pressing issues, the state’s Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari tabled a supplementary budget to the tune of Rs 11,200 crore at the Odisha Assembly on Friday.
A supplementary budget is usually tabled when there is a dire necessity of additional funds for the conduct of regular work of the government. This year, the onslaught of the pandemic has crippled governmental revenues and heightened expenditures on several fronts. With the controversial decision of the Central government to deny GST collection shares on the account of an ‘Act of God’, the states were further pushed into financial volatility.
“This year’s supplementary budget, which is an exercise of reprioritisation of the allocations made in the 2020-21 annual budget, has also stressed on boosting the domestic demand and revival of the state’s economy by allocating funds to infrastructure projects for their early completion,” Pujari said. He also mentioned that the projects flagged off by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik – including the COVID-19 Warrior Special Assistance, for the handlooms, textiles and handicrafts sector, the MSME Sector and the Mission Shakti have been accounted for in the supplementary budget.
The supplementary provision of Rs 11,200 crore comprises Rs 2,273 crore towards administrative expenditure (salary and pension), Rs 1,484 crore towards disaster management funds, Rs 5 crore towards transfer to local bodies (panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies) and Rs 7,438 crore towards programme expenditure (schemes and infrastructure projects).