UP Budget 2023: Finance Minister presents state budget, highlights 16.8% growth in GDP

Uttar Pradesh finance minister Suresh Khanna on Wednesday presented the state's annual budget, for the financial year 2023-24 and highlighted the 16.8 per cent growth in the state's GDP. This is the second budget for the Yogi 2.0 government.

This is the second budget for 'Yogi 2.0,' or chief minister Yogi Adityanath, under whose leadership the ruling BJP was re-elected in March last year.

"The state has recorded a 16.8% increase in state GDP which is higher than the national growth rate," Suresh Khanna said in his budget speech. He added that the unemployment rate was 14.4 per cent before 2017 and has come down to 4.2 per cent.

Targeting youths, the budget made provision of Rs 1,050 crore under the "Chief Minister Kanya Sumangala Yojana", Rs 4,032 crore for destitute widows and Rs 600 crore for the "Samuhik Vivah" scheme for the marriage of girls of all classes.

The finance minister proposed Rs 150 crore for the marriage grant scheme for daughters of poor people belonging to other backward classes.

For providing tablets and smartphones to eligible students under Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Scheme, a provision of Rs 3,600 crore has been made in the budget for the financial year 2023-24.

On the infrastructure front, the finance minister proposed a provision of over Rs 21,159 crore for the construction of roads and bridges, and Rs 6,209 crore for their maintenance.

Khanna said Rs 3,473 crore is proposed for the work of bridges and roads for agricultural marketing facilities and Rs 1,525 crore for roads in rural areas.

While Rs 1,700 crore is proposed for the construction of railway overhead bridges and Rs 1,850 crore for other bridges, the budget proposed Rs 2,588 crore for widening/strengthening and new works of state highways.

A provision of Rs 2,538 crore is proposed for widening/strengthening and new works of major/other district roads, Khanna said.

With religious tourism in mind, the budget proposed Rs 1,000 crore for the development of 'Dharmarth Marg' (roads to religious places). The budget also proposed Rs 3,000 crore for maintenance of roads and Rs 2,500 crore for construction from the State Road Fund, Khanna said.

The finance minister has set an investment target of Rs 10 lakh crore and the creation of 20 thousand jobs in the next 5 years under the new Uttar Pradesh Tourism Policy 2022.

A budget provision of Rs 7,248 crore was also proposed for the old age/farmer pension scheme, while Rs 1,120 crore was set aside for Divyang Pension Yojana.

A provision of Rs 12,631 crore has been proposed for various programmes under the National Rural Health Mission, he added.

The finance minister earlier told reporters that it would be the biggest budget in the history of Uttar Pradesh. Last year, the state government presented an annual budget of Rs 6.15 lakh crore for 2022-23. A supplementary budget for Rs 33,769.55 crore was presented in December 2022, taking the total size of the budget to about Rs 6.50 lakh crore.