The Hindu : National : Tax-free budget presented in Orissa House

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

National

National

Tax-free budget presented in Orissa House

Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai on Tuesday presented a tax-free budget of Rs. 31,252.21 crore for 2006-07. The Opposition staged a walkout, saying the budget had nothing for the poor.

Mr. Ghadai said the main thrust of the budget was on spending more money for developmental work, social security, education and health through non-plan, Central plan and Centrally-sponsored schemes. A responsive system was necessary to improve the effectiveness of spending, measured in terms of improvement in delivery of services.

The aim was to ensure efficient utilisation of available resources. The State's share of the Centrally-sponsored schemes had been increased to Rs. 501.83 crore in the budget against Rs. 284.65 crore provided in last year's budget to facilitate release of more Central grant.

In the agriculture sector, Mr. Ghadai said that while Rs. 48.08 crore was kept for agricultural schemes, Rs. 553.50 crore had been provided for irrigation programmes. A sum of Rs. 233.71 crore had been provided for tribal and Harijan welfare.

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