Ghadei calls pre-budget meet on January 16

BHUBANESWAR: With the State Government planning to present the annual budget for 2012-13 in the third week of February, Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei has convened a meeting of ministers on January 16 for pre-budget discussions. While the size of the State budget has witnessed four-fold increase during the last 11 years from 2000-01, the Government has decided to go for a plan outlay of  Rs 17,000 crore in 2012-13, the first year of the Twelfth Plan. The total budget size of the State increased from Rs 11,047 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 44,878 crore in 2011-12. In 2000-01, income from the revenue receipts contributed about 63 per cent of the total budget and the contribution is more than 90 per cent in the recent years due to significant improvement in the revenue earning, a note on the State budget said. The revenue receipts from own tax and non-tax have increased from 42 per cent to 48 per cent during the period. The receipt from own tax and non-tax was ` 2,869 crore in 2000-01 while the receipt was more than Rs 16,000 crore in the current fiscal. After wriggling out of the financial mess, the State has been able to contain the non-plan expenditure to about 66 per cent in the current financial year from 82 per cent in 2003-04. The committed expenditure of the Government towards salary, pension and debt servicing in 2011-12 was Rs 19,564 crore as against ` 7,921 crore in 2003-04. The total size of the budget in 2003-04 was Rs 15,564 crore. With the improved fiscal health, the Government has been able to make substantial capital outlay during the recent years. While the capital outlay was only Rs 853 crore in 2003-04, it has increased to Rs 5,662 crore in the current financial year. The capital expenditure has shown an average growth of 16 per cent during 2000-2011.  The capital expenditure in 2011-12 was 2.89 per cent of the gross state domestic products (GSDP) as against 1.32 per cent in 2005-06, the Finance Department note said. The State was also able to contain the fiscal deficit to three per cent of the GSDP as recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.