Most Odisha depts fail to spend mandatory 60% by Dec end

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 4:

With just two weeks left for the presentation of the annual budget for the 2015-16 fiscal, the Odisha government has failed to spend the mandatory minimum of 60 per cent of last year’s budgetary provision by the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal.

During the meeting of secretaries here on Tuesday, Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati reviewed the plan and non-plan expenditure of departments and revenue collection of the state by December end last year.

“Only Rs 43,686.98 crore of the total Rs 81,720 crore provided in last year’s budget has been spent, which amounts to 52 percent of the Plan and Non Plan funds by December 2014,” Pati said.

The state Plan expenditure this year is just 49.75 per cent by December 2014 against last year’s Annual Plan expenditure of 56 per cent. However, the Annual Plan size is much bigger this year than last year, Development Commissioner U N Behera said.

Department of Agriculture has spent the maximum of 53.88 per cent while on the infrastructure front, Housing & Urban Development registered a poor show with barely 22.24 per cent spending, while the Energy sector too has experienced equally low spending at 29.80 percent.

Spending in Social sector was 51.91 percent by end of December, a decline of 13 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.

A review on Revenue Collection of Own Tax Revenue revealed that it has registered 13.46 rise while Non Tax Revenue is falling.

Non Tax Revenue like Mining Revenue has been reduced by 21 percent and is expected to go down further due to fall in iron ore prices, which is a serious concern.

Department of Works has spent the highest amount of 67.84 percent. Overall spending on infrastructure sector is 49.75 percent of the total allotment.

Plan spending in the state by the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal was Rs 19,382 crore as compared to Rs 10,935 crore in the last fiscal, a 49 per cent increase of the budget estimate of Rs 39,572.91 crore.

As the state’s plan expenditure was a meagre 15 per cent by June, the chief secretary had set a target of 50 per cent expenditure by the end of December.

The Chief Secretary asked the departments that have failed to adhere to the cash management system (CMS), which mandates at least 60 percent spending by the end of December, to surrender the unspent funds.

Now, all the 15 low performing cash management departments have to indicate surrender areas where money cannot be spent.

Notably, the CMS was introduced to arrest rush in expenditure towards the fag end of any fiscal.

The tax and non-tax revenue collection by the end of December was Rs 16,792 crore as against Rs 16,167 crore during the same period in 2013. The own tax revenue collection of the state has been Rs 12,229 crore as against Rs 10,779 crore in 2013.