Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna tabled the state’s annual budget for the financial year 2023-24 in the state Assembly today. This will be the second budget for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, under whose leadership the ruling BJP was re-elected in March last year.
This year the budget is even more significant given that the 2024 General Elections are just around the corner and the saffron camp is hoping to storm back to power for a third term to retain government at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
It is this government’s seventh overall budget since 2017. Ahead of the budget presentation, UP Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna offers prayers at a temple in Lucknow.
Yogi govt’s largest-ever budget
While presenting the Yogi Adityanath government’s largest-ever budget, the state Finance Minister highlighted the state’s growth over the past years and said that UP’s growth rate expected to be 19% for 2023-24.
He said that Uttar Pradesh ranks first in the country in housing construction, construction of toilets, establishment of micro, small and medium scale industries under PM Awas Yojana rural/urban, transfer of funds to beneficiaries through DBT through PFMS portal.
“Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, in the year 2022-2023, more than Rs 51,639.68 Crores has been transferred directly to the bank accounts of farmers through DBT,” said Khanna. He also said that more than 19,000 MoUs worth about Rs 33.50 Lakh Crore were signed in Global Investors Summit-2023.
UP Budget: Key Points
- Rs 850 crore has been allocated for new police commissionerates
- Rs 400 crore allocated for effective implementation of Ayushman Bharat scheme, 2.34 cr beneficiaries listed in UP
- Rs 10 crore allocated for purchase of vehicles by SDRF
- Rs 20 crore allocated for establishing State Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development
- Rs 1,000 crore allocated for development of residential facilities for cops
- Rs 200 crore for establishment of the Unity Mall where ODOP products and other handicrafts would be showcased and sold.
- Rs 200 crore proposed for Gorakhpur Industrial Corridor
- Rs 3,600 crore set aside for providing smartphones and gadgets to students
- Rs 100 crore is proposed for the implementation of the Metro Rail project in cities including Varanasi and Gorakhpur
- Rs 100 crore allotted as seed money for incubators and the promotion of start ups across the state.
- Rs 100 crore allotted for CM Jan Arogya Yojna for workers of the unorganised sector.
- Rs 12 crore corpus fund assigned to CM Durghatna Bima Yojna for workers of the unorganised sector.
- Rs 550 crore allotted to Defence Corridor along the Purvanchal Expressway
- Rs 235 crore allotted to Jhansi link and Chitrakoot link expressways
- Rs 600 crore allotted for CM mass marriage scheme Rs 83 crore allotted for women self help groups in rural areas
- Rs 4032 crore allotted for pension of 32.62 lakh poor widows across UP
UP Budget to be ‘all inclusive’
Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Brijesh Pathak said the budget will be an ‘inclusive’ one for the overall development of the state. He added that the focus is likely to be on infrastructure development, health sector and education.
At a high level meeting recently, Yogi Adityanath had indicated that the new budget would be in accordance with the aspirations of people.
With an approximate size of Rs 7 lakh crore, this is going to be one of the largest budgets in the state history. Notably, the state government had presented an annual budget of Rs 6.15 lakh crore last year. A supplementary budget of Rs 33,769.55 crore was presented on December 5, 2022, taking the total size of the UP budget in 2022-2023 to Rs 6.50 lakh crore. An increase of about 10% in the outlay may take the annual budget for 2023-2024 to nearly Rs 7 lakh crore.
