Odisha fiscal chart shows improvement
BHUBANESWAR: Fiscal performance of the State has shown a remarkable improvement by February-end, both on counts of revenue collection and utilisation of budget allocation.“The total revenue collection from all sources has increased by around 24 per cent to Rs 31,251 crore. The growth excludes the GST compensation of Rs 1,326 crore” said Principal Secretary Finance TK Pandey.Beating the slowdown in world market, the revenue generation from mining sector has grown around 39 per cent over the last year. Collection from mining royalty by end of February was around Rs 5,246 crore against Rs 3,783 crore during the same period last year, he added.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi reviewed the fiscal performance of the State at the all Secretaries meeting here on Wednesday. Giving updates on financial performance, Pandey said programme expenditure up to February 2018 has increased to Rs 41,236 crore, recording a growth of around 11 per cent in comparison to the same period of the 2016-17 fiscal. The programme utilisation up to February, 2017 was around Rs 37,143 crore.
Similarly, the social sector spending has grown by more than 20 per cent with a total expenditure of Rs 18,621 crore. Budget expenditure in infrastructure building has recorded a nominal growth of 2 per cent at Rs 10,148 crore. Fund utilisation in agriculture and allied sector has increased to Rs 9,257 crore, he added.
Keeping in tune with the expenditure, revenue generation from own-tax sources has increased by around 29 per cent over the last year till end of February. The total collection from own tax sources this fiscal till February has reached Rs 24,568 crore against Rs 19,099 crore during same period last financial year. Similarly, revenue generation from non-tax sources has recorded an increase of around 9 per cet with a collection of Rs 6,683 crore against last year’s collection of Rs 6,157 crore.
Mining sector being the major non-tax revenue source, the State has improved collection despite global slowdown and closure of seven mines due to failure of the lease holders to pay compensation for excess mining.The total dispatch of iron ore from the State till the first week of March was around 120.63 million tonne against the total dispatch of around 112 million tonne during the same period last fiscal.
Similarly, the total production of iron ore up to March first week of current fiscal has been around 99 million tonne against 97 million tonne during the same period of last year. The Chief Secretary has asked all departments concerned to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of the budgeted funds and make the expenditure outcome oriented.