Bhubaneswar, Feb 01: The budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday will help the country to a large extent in this pandemic situation, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.
The focus of the budget on technology and infrastructure-led growth will have a positive impact on the proposed technology-led development in the health and education sector, Patnaik said.
The Production Linked Initiative schemes in fourteen sectors and extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme would be helpful in mitigating supply-side constraints, he said.
CM Patnaik however, claimed that the slashing of sectoral allocation in critical sectors like agriculture and farmers welfare, higher education, rural development and women & child development could hamper inclusive growth. Reduction in MGNREGS in a pandemic situation is not going to help poor people, he remarked.
The Chief Minister said already there are serious issues of offtake by FCI leading to dislocation in paddy procurement adding any further reduction in food subsidy under NFSA will put farmers in serious trouble which needs to be reconsidered.
Patnaik said the Budget has not addressed the price rise being faced by people as the middle class and poor people are heavily impacted by price rise and inflation. To compound this further, there is a sharp decline in LPG subsidies. This will affect household economics very badly and women will bear the brunt of LPG price rise, the Chief Minister said.
He further said the increasing level of cess and surcharge is shrinking the mandated transfers of share tax due to the States.
More than 20 per cent of the Union Taxes are proposed to be collected through the levy of Cess and Surcharge which is against the spirit of cooperative federalism. He welcomed the increased allocation under Jal Jivan Mission, PMAY but said the people of Odisha are shocked that the genuine demands of the state on rural housing are neglected, while the same is considered for other states. ” I hope the centre would rectify this injustice being meted out to the poor and the tribal people of Odisha by not sanctioning houses.” Patnaik said.
Odisha, he said, is the only state in the country which is more frequently affected by natural calamities yet the repeated demand for special consideration for the state has not been addressed in the Budget”, Patnaik remarked.
