The Odisha Council of Ministers on Thursday approved the draft budget for the 2019-20 fiscal at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The budget will be presented in the Assembly by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on June 28. The budget session is scheduled to begin on June 25.
The proposals for 2019-20 are likely to have a total outlay of ₹1,39,000 crore, which is higher than what the State government had projected in the interim budget that was presented in February ahead of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the State.
The focus of the new budget will be on farmers’ welfare, including smooth implementation of the KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme that was rolled out in January this year.
Besides, the budget will focus on relief and restoration work in the coastal districts that were ravaged by Cyclone Fani on May 3 and other existing welfare schemes.
The Mission Shakti programme, apart from allocation for sectors such as health and education, will also get priority.
The budget for 2018-19 was of ₹1,20,028 crore, which was about 12.3% higher than the one for 2017-18.
Growth rate
While presenting a vote-on-account budget for the first four months of 2019-20 in February, the then Finance Minister, Shashi Bhusan Behera, had said that the State's economy was expected to grow at the rate of 8.35% in 2019-20, surpassing the all-India growth rate of 7.2%.
