Odisha Assembly passes Appropriation Bill, 2025, amid Opposition BJD's walkout

Bhubaneswar: Amid a walkout by the Opposition BJD and in the absence of suspended Congress MLAs, the Odisha Assembly on Saturday passed the Appropriation Bill, 2025, allowing the state government to spend Rs 2.90 lakh crore from its consolidated fund during the financial year 2025-26.

This was the first full budget of the BJP government, which was presented by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in the House on February 17.

“No money can be withdrawn from the consolidated fund of Odisha except under appropriation made by the law passed in accordance with the provision of the Constitution,” Majhi said, adding that two aspects are taken into consideration, one is the size of the budget, and the second is the fiscal discipline.

The budget for the financial year 2025-26 is based on these two criteria, he said.

“If we look at the size of the budget, it is Rs 2.90 lakh crore, which is about 10 per cent more than that of the 2024-25 fiscal. Out of this total estimate, the proposed programme expenditure is Rs 1.70 lakh crore, which is 59 per cent of the total budget estimate,” Majhi said.

He said the capital expenditure estimate of Rs 65,012 crore in the current budget is 6.1 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), the "highest" among all the major states in the country.

“A few days ago, I was watching an interview with the chief minister of Telangana, he was saying the financial condition of his state is so bad that it is not even able to spend Rs 500 crore per month on capital expenditure. It is better not to talk about the financial condition of Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh,” he said.

However, the chief minister said that Odisha is able to spend more than Rs 5,000 crore per month on capital expenditure and has also made provisions for this.

Stating that one of the key indicators of the budget is the fiscal deficit, Majhi said for the financial year 2025-26, this deficit is only Rs 34,200 crore, which is limited to 3.21 per cent of the GSDP.

"This is a very healthy economy. This financial management of our government is the best in the country and our government has not deviated from this goal even a little," he said.

He said this budget is based on four pillars - livelihood, infrastructure development, women empowerment and social security.

These four pillars will lead to a new, strong and prosperous Odisha, he said.

Initiating the debate, opposition BJD member Arun Komar Sahoo came down heavily on the state’s BJP government and claimed that there is nothing new in the budget.

“Whatever provisions were made in the previous budget, the government has failed to utilise it. Therefore, making a big budget is not important, but the government should have a mechanism to spend them in proper manner,” said another BJD member.

Expressing displeasure over the chief minister’s statement that the budget will ensure the development of the state, the BJD members staged a walkout.