BHUBANESWAR: Even though tax and non-tax resources registered a growth by October-end of the current financial year, 15 per cent decrease in Central assistance during the period has emerged as a cause of concern for the State’s finances, Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said in the Assembly on Friday.
Replying to the debate on Odisha Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2015, the Minister said the Centre stopped eight schemes including Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for KBK region, Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) funded by it under the changed circumstances.
Besides, it stopped normal assistance under Gadgil-Mukherjee formula and slashed assistance for several other schemes. Several State and sector specific schemes started under the recommendations of Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) were also stopped by the Centre, resulting in a loss of `7,655 crore to the State exchequer, the Minister said.
Taking into account the increase in the State’s share in Central taxes from 32 per cent to 42 per cent as recommended by Fourteenth Finance Commission, the loss to Odisha will still be `1776 crore, he said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Besides, he had also demanded special package of `3500 crore to run the funds from the Niti Aayog funds. But the Centre provided only `132 crore for the incomplete projects in KBK region, he said.
The Minister, however, said the State Government has launched several schemes including Odisha Modernisation of Police Force, Odisha Mission on Food Processing and Sustainable Management of Chilika Lake after slashing of funds by the Centre.