Odisha govt to table vote-on-account budget in assembly to begin on March 15

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government will bring a vote-on-account instead of the regular budget for 2016-17 during the assembly session likely to begin from March 15.

It was decided in the all-party meeting chaired by Assembly Speaker Niranjan Pujari on Monday.

Finance Minister Pradeep Amat said the state government, as decided in the all-party meeting, would bring a vote-on-account budget in the coming assembly session.

“We will table the annual budget only after the central budget is introduced in parliament. It would help us to know what amount we would receive from the central budget, and we can plan our budget accordingly,” said the minister.

Appropriation Bill for two months will be passed before March 31. A regular Budget for ten months will be sent to Standing Committee, and comments of the committee will be submitted by April 25, said the leader of opposition Narasingh Mishra.

Finance secretary and development commissioner R. Balakrishnan made a presentation about the budget before the all-party meeting attended by several senior leaders.

Opposition chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said all-party meet has decided to start Budget session from March 15.

Sources said the budget is yet to be completed because of the financial difficulties arising out of curtailing funds for different central schemes and stopping financial assistance to several other programmes.

Notably, the government has already concluded the pre-budget consultation meetings and invited suggestions from the public for the budget.

As many as 1666 suggestions were received from the public, and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had asked the Finance Department to analyse the recommendations.