Fiscal performance of Odisha shows upward trend

Bhubaneswar: Fiscal performances of Odisha by end of January of the current financial year has shown signs of an upward trend with the concurrent increase in both its major indicators like utilization of the budget allocations on different schemes and programmes and revenue generation.

This was known from the review taken by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the all secretaries meeting held in secretariat conference hall here on Tuesday.

Padhi directed all departments to ensure 100% utilization of the budgeted allocations while focusing on the outcomes of the expenditures.

The Secretaries were also asked to send notes and recommendations on their district visits to the concerned departments for implementation.

The Chief Secretary further directed the Planning and Convergence department to follow up compliances to the recommendations by concerned departments.

The review showed an overall increase of around 8% in total budget utilization on various programmes by end of January in the current financial year (2017-18) in comparison to the corresponding period of last financial year.

Total programme expenditure up to January 2018 has been around Rs.36,756  crore against Rs.34, 014 crores spent up to January, 2017.

Budget utilization in social sector has been to the tune of Rs.Rs.16, 685 crores up to January of current year against the total spending of Rs.14,425. crore during the same period of last financial year, thereby showing an increase of around 16 %.

The programmes under this sector are principally administered through the departments of School & Mass Education, Scheduled Tribe & Schedule Caste Development, Health & Family Welfare, Labour & ESI, Panchayati Raj, Women & Child Development, Higher Education, Skill Development & Technical Education and Social Security & Empowerment of persons with Disability.

Similarly, the expenditure in Agriculture & allied sector up to January 2018 has been around Rs.8486 crore which is around 0.15% more than the expenditure of the corresponding period of last year.

The expenditure in this sector principally is executed and monitored through the departments of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, Water Resources, Fisheries & Animal Resource Development and Cooperation.

The budget utilization in infrastructure building undertaken through the departments of Works, Housing & Urban Development, Rural Development and Energy up to January 2018 has been to the tune of Rs.9015.25 crore.

In total, the programme expenditure in different sectors has gone up by 8.06% by the end of January 2018 in comparison to January 2017.

Keeping tune with the expenditure, the total revenue augmentation till January 2018 has also increased by around 22% in comparison to the corresponding period.

The Total revenue collection up to January 2017 was around Rs. 22895 crores which increased to around Rs.27894 crore by January 2018.

Own Tax revenue grew by around 27% with a total collection of around Rs. 21959 crores and the Non-Tax Revenue grew by around 7% with a total collection of Rs.5934 crore.

The revenue collection from mining increased to the tune of around Rs.4698 cr thereby showing a growth of around 37% over the corresponding period of the last year.