Orissa budget projects revenue deficit of Rs 2369.09 cr

The pre-elections sops to the electorate have forced the Orissa government to project borrowing of Rs 4463.84 crore to meet the gap in revenue and expenditure in the state budget for 2009-10.

The type of loans to be incurred include open market borrowings (Rs 1890.26 crore), net loans from government provident fund (Rs 284.55 crore), negotiated loans (Rs 820 crore), loans for externally added projects (Rs 1183.9 crore) on back to back basis and borrowings from the National Small Savings Fund (Rs 250 crore).

It may be noted, the government will be resorting to open market borrowing for the first time last four years. Besides, the state government also intends to go for withdrawal from the sinking fund (amortization fund available to meet the future liability), also a first such instance in its fiscal history.

Similarly, after reporting revenue surplus for four consecutive years, the state has projected revenue deficit of Rs 2369.09 crore in the current year’s budget. “The total size of the state budget for 2009-10 has been fixed at Rs 35,001.45 crore and the borrowing is projected at Rs 4463.84 crore”, state finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said.

Addressing the media after presenting the full fledged state budget 2009-10 in the assembly, Ghadai said, the revenue deficit has been projected at Rs 2369.09 crore for the current fiscal.

Similarly, the fiscal deficit has been projected at Rs 6004.32 crore. However, deficit in the revenue account and fiscal deficit will not impact the incentives that the state was getting for adhering to the fiscal discipline, he added.

Though there is revenue deficit of Rs 2369.09 crore , the expenditure in the capital account will be less by Rs 544.07 crore compared to receipts, making the deficit in the consolidated fund at Rs 1825.03 crore. However, the finance minister claimed the budget as a balance budget with revenue deficit.

While the size of the non-plan account has been projected at Rs 25071.8 crore, the state plan outlay is fixed at Rs 7632 crore. The size of the central plan outlay has been fixed at Rs 755.12 crore and the centrally sponsored plan size at Rs 1542.53 crore.

He said, thrust has been given on the development of agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, rural development, poverty alleviation and development of schedule caste and schedule tribe population.

There is no proposal for levy of any new taxes and the state government will not resort to expenditure pruning unless the fiscal situation worsens.

Ghadai said, things are looking up in the tax front and the collection of value added tax in the month of May this year has increased by 8.11 percent over the same month last year.