Bhubaneswar: Amid uproar, eight Bills, including Odisha Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill were introduced in the state Assembly Saturday.
Amendment to the Odisha Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2005 will allow the state government to raise the level of fiscal deficit by another 2 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
As per the proposed amendment, additional 2 per cent fiscal deficit includes unconditional borrowing of 0.5 per cent of GSDP and another 0.5 per cent bonus for completion of at least three of state-specific reforms.
The balance 1 per cent depends on the implementation of four sectoral reforms, each carrying weightage of 0.25 per cent. The decision would give an additional leeway to the state government to go for higher borrowing for meeting its rising capital need, sources said.
Through the Odisha Repealing Bill, the government has proposed to repeal 206 old and obsolete Acts that were passed between 1976 and 2016.
The other Bills are—Xavier University Odisha (Amendment) Bill, Odia University (Amendment) Bill, Odisha Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Bill, Odisha Advocates’ Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, Societies Registration (Odisha Amendment) Bill and Biju Patnaik University of Technology (Amendment) Bill.
PNN