The Odisha Government is likely to present its annual State Budget for 2016-17 fiscal after the presentation of Union Budget scheduled for February 29.
Sources said the State Government would be able to present its budget only after taking into consideration Central allocation for the State in the next budget. This has become necessary since the State has to provide resources for some of the Centrally-sponsored schemes, allocations for which were either slashed or terminated altogether by the Centre last year, they added.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Niranjan Pujari has called an all-party meeting on February 1 to discuss State Budget.
The State Government raised a loan of `3,500 crore from the open market last year to make up for the shortfall in its exchequer. Once the State Government knows the exact Central assistance after presentation of the Union Budget, it would be in a position to determine its budget, said the sources.
While there was speculation that the State Government would present a Vote-On-Account prior to the full-fledged budget, Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat has ruled out such a possibility.
He said, “The State Government had to bear an extra financial burden from its exchequer last year for running some Central schemes after the Centre stopped financial assistance. It would not be proper to talk about the matter in this context. But the fact remains that the State Government has started preparatory work on it.”
