Bhubaneswar, Feb. 24: The state government today presented a Rs 52,755-crore Budget for 2012-13 in the Assembly with focus on the development activities.

The government, however, burdened the tax payers with 1 per cent hike in value added tax (VAT).

Presenting the Budget, finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei said the budgetary outlay was 19 per cent higher than the previous year. It envisaged a revenue surplus of Rs 2,410.77 crore.

“This is a growth-oriented Budget with focus on infrastructure development. Besides, stress has been laid on food and health security and welfare activities,” Ghadei said. He said more funds had been allotted in social, economic and capital expenditure.

Priority had been given to agriculture, irrigation, rural development, law and order and countering the Maoist menace, he said.

Plan outlay of Rs 1,526.31 crore has been made for agriculture, Rs 3,477.79 crore for irrigation, Rs 6,537.39 crore for school and mass education, Rs 1,292.78 crore for higher education, Rs 2,258.55 crore for works, Rs 2,723.69 crore for women and child development, Rs 1,720.54 crore for rural development and Rs 2,563.82 crore for panchayati raj departments.

Besides, an allocation of Rs 353.19 crore has been made for the newly created employment and technical education department and Rs 60.61 crore for the micro, small and medium enterprises department.

The state government has allocated Rs 275.70 crore for the newly launched Mamata Yojana, a cash transfer scheme for pregnant women, Rs 140 crore for another new scheme, the Biju Setu Yojana.

The government has also decided to launch an emergency ambulance service and provided Rs 16.22 crore for its implementation.

“I have tried to strike a balance between fiscal discipline and the hopes and aspirations of the people,” the finance minister said.

However, Opposition leaders and finance experts dubbed the Budget as “anti-people and direction-less”.

“This Budget is a fraud on the people of Odisha,” said senior Congress leader and former finance minister Ramakrushna Patnaik.

“The finance minister has resorted to statistical jugglery to cheat the people,” he said.

The government lacked sincerity, funds and manpower for poverty alleviation and economic development of the state, said Patnaik.

Another former finance minister Panchanan Kanungo described the Budget as an “arithmetic manipulation of some increases here and there over the last year”.

The new Budget lacked direction to mitigate the regional imbalances and bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, he said.

“The government should have given more importance to the infrastructure for higher education. Only Rs 9 crore has been provided which is not adequate,” said assistant professor in economics at Ravenshaw University Manoj Kumar Das.

Das said no justice had been done towards addressing global challenges of environment as a budgetary provision of around Rs 5 crore had been made in this regard.