'The proposal to bring more services under service tax net will also give rise to inflation in the country,' Orissa's finance minister PC Ghadai said.
Terming the Union budget presented by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as "visionless", Orissa government today said it has nothing to offer except commitment for implementation of direct tax code and goods and service tax (GST) from April, 2011.
"The proposal to bring more services under service tax net will also give rise to inflation in the country," Orissa's finance minister PC Ghadai told reporters.
The partial roll back of excise duty rate, reduction on petroleum products could lead to inflationary trend, he said adding restoration of duties on diesel and petrol would also indirectly influence commodity inflation in the price of other commodities, he said.
Stating that there was no specific allocation of funds in respect to any project in Orissa except Rs400 crore for Green Revolution in eastern region comprising six states, Ghadai said Rs 400 crore was provided for hosiery industries in Tamil Nadu and Rs200 crore for Goa for restoring beaches.
While Rs1,200 crore was allocated for drought mitigation in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, no such provision was for drought hit areas of Orissa, he said. Similarly, though rivers like Bhagirathi, Ganga-Padma had been covered under the centrally sponsored flood management programme, flood ravaged states like Orissa were not taken into consideration, Ghadai said.
"The budget had no provision of funds for river Brahmani which passed though industrial and coal producing areas," the finance minister said.
On increase of allocation for major flagship programmes, the state said it was part of the federal responsibility.
Extension of repayment period for the agriculture loan would not be up to much benefit to the farmers, he said.
Meanwhile, the state unit of BJP also termed the union budget as "anti-people."
"This budget is a betrayal for the people a day after the Centre announcing that prices will come down soon," said BJP state president Jual Oram.
Describing the budget as "anti-poor" and pro-rich, Orissa unit of CPI said prices of essential commodities would rise following hike in petrol and diesel prices, affecting the poor and middle class people.
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