Nilachala Acharya
24 February 2009
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Budget is an annual exercise of estimated receipts and
expenditures, which reflects the plans and policy
priorities of the government. It shows the broad
objectives of fiscal policies (i.e. budgetary policies)
and sustainability of such policies in an economy over a
period of time. It is a financial statement which
assigns priorities to different programmes to be
undertaken during the ensuing year. It is the single
most important policy document of the government, where
policy objectives are reconciled and implemented in
concrete terms for the welfare of the mass. Though this
process of budget calls for people’s participation in
prioritization of their needs in terms of allocation of
money, in India, unfortunately the budget making
process, by and large, is a closed door exercise, even
with limited political participation. Again, as budget
deals with the money and that is being financed by the
people through various means like taxes, fees and fines
the process of its formulation and implementation demand
greater transparency. However, over the year budget
making process has been marred with lack of citizen
involvement and thus lacking in transparency. In a way
the current practice of budget making process has made
the government non-accountable.
Hence, there is a need
for analyzing budgets from different angles which would enable citizens to
hold government accountable and deepen democracy.
As is obvious, in a
socialistic pattern of economy the State assumes greater responsibilities to
provide social security to its citizens in the form of social obligations.
More specifically, in the context of Indian federation, the state
governments are supposed to undertake massive welfare programmes in terms of
spending in those sectors, besides undertaking other economic activities.
Despite this
constitutional provision, Orissa, an eastern State of India has been
languishing under poverty with most of the socio-economic development
indicators lying at the bottom in comparison to other major states of the
country. Box 1 summarizes the extent of poverty of Orissa with
relation to major socio-economic development indicators. Given the misery of
Orissa on one hand and on the other the constitutional obligation of the
state to prioritize budgetary spending in welfare activities it becomes
imperative to evaluate the policy intents of the government of Orissa
towards social sector during last couple of year. This paper is a modest
attempt in this regard.
Before looking at the
trend of social sector expenditure of Orissa, it is important to note how
the present government prioritized budget spending for different sectors in
terms of policy pronouncements during different budgets since 2004-05
(Box-2) . A close look into the policy initiatives of the government in
different budgets, one can summarize the following observations.
·
Some
positive measures to augment revenue (introduction of VAT)
·
Rationalize
the revenue administration
·
Expedite
the functioning of the institutions to curb regional imbalances and
disparities
·
Stress on
completion of incomplete projects through zero base budgeting
·
Introduction of more than a dozen of Plan Schemes and Programmes in social
sector
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