BHUBANESWAR: Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei today admitted in the Assembly that expenditure of plan and non-plan funds in the budget had not been satisfactory.
Replying to a question from Amar Prasad Satpathy (NCP), the Minister said that expenditure had been only 27.57 per cent of the budget estimates by September-end. Ghadei said that Central assistance of Rs 998.92 crore had been received by the State Government between April 1 and August 31, out of which utilisation certificates of Rs 82.87 crore has been submitted.
Elaborating on the reasons behind the slow pace of expenditure, the Minister said that development work was affected for three months as the model code of conduct was in force for the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.
He said that expenditure funds had been reviewed several times by the Planning and Coordination and Finance Departments. He said that by the year-end, the expenditure of funds will improve in all the departments. He said departments which had fallen behind in expenditure were asked to speed up utilisation of funds.
In a written reply to a question from Rabi Narayan Nanda (BJD), the Minister said that the State was revenue surplus to the tune of Rs 3,419.89 crore in 2008-09 financial year compared to the revenue deficit of Rs 2,573.72 crore in 1999-2000.
While revenue receipts in 2008-09 increased from Rs 5,884.63 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 24,610.01 crore, revenue expenditure grew from Rs 8,458.35 crore to Rs 21,190.12 crore during the corresponding period. He said that the State Government had passed the Fiscal Management and Accountability Bill in 2005 to improve the situation of the State.
