Bhubaneswar: Amid the economic slowdown, the state government has started preparations for the annual Budget 2020-21 much ahead of schedule. The government plans to present the Budget in the Assembly in the third week of February 2020.
As the Centre is likely to present its next annual Budget February 1, the state Finance department has asked all administrative departments to submit details of their fund requirements by February 21.
Moreover, the departments have been instructed to prioritise their expenditure requirements after thorough consultations with various stakeholders and finalise their respective Budget proposals within tentative ceiling.
In the meantime, Centre has decided to give an interim report of the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2020-21 as well as the final report of the Commission covering the 2021-26 fiscals.
After going through the recommendations of the Finance Commission and provisions made for Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) for Odisha, the state government will finalise the ceiling, sources said.
The state Finance department will have one-to-one consultation meetings with all departments to prepare the Budget in a way that the departments will able to spend the provisions and there will be lesser surrender and low requirement in the supplementary Budget, they said.
It is expected that the next Budget will be somewhat affected due to the ongoing economic slowdown. Even the Central aid to state may be less as the Union government too is going through a severe economical crisis now.
For current financial year, the state government has made provision of Rs 1.39 lakh crore in the annual Budget and Rs 8,126 crore in the supplementary Budget. For next year, the Budget likely to be almost similar, the source said.
“Thus far, our tax and non-tax revenue collections have been growing. But, the nationalwide economic slowdown may have some negative impact on it,” said Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari.
The loan burden of Odisha has touched Rs 87,000 crore, which may go up to Rs 1.6 lakh crore by the end of this financial year.