Expedite budget use: Government to departments

The fiscal strategy paper for 2020-21 financial year would be presented by December and pre-budget consultations held between December 16 and 31.

BHUBANESWAR: With the State Government gearing up to place supplementary budget for 2019-20 in mid-November, all the departments were asked to make a realistic reassessment of their additional financial requirement for the current fiscal.

Reviewing fiscal performances of various departments up to September 2019 at the all-secretary meeting here, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy directed the departments to expedite budget utilisation and make up the backlog which was caused due to the model code of conduct for the general elections.

Principal Secretary, Finance Ashok Meena said, “The supplementary budget would be presented around mid-November, 2019. As per timeline communicated earlier, the departments are required to submit their proposals within a day,”. He said the anticipated savings should be surrendered by the departments for reallocation. The fiscal strategy paper for 2020-21 financial year would be presented by December and pre-budget consultations held between December 16 and 31. 

Revenue augmentation shows an upward trend by end of September marking a growth rate of around 8.10 per cent (pc) over corresponding period of last fiscal year. The revenue generation from non-tax sources grew by 10.46 pc by September-end in comparison to the corresponding period of the last year with a total collection of `6,186.48 crore. 

Revenue collection from non-tax sources like mining royalty and water cess increased by around 14 pc and 46 pc respectively. The total collection from mining royalty was around `5,207 crore against last year’s collection of `4,580 crore by end of September. 

Similarly, the revenue generation from own tax sources has also increased by 7.16 pc with a total collection of around `15,055 crore against last year’s collection of `14,049 crore. 
The budget utilisation in the first half of the current fiscal grew by 9.15 pc over the corresponding period last year. The total expenditure by September was `46,819 crore. Tripathy directed the departments to rearrange their spending pattern so as to scale up utilisation level to at least sixty percent of the budgeted amount by end of December.

Development Commissioner SC Mohapatra advised the secretaries to make the district visit programme more effective and outcome oriented as the objective of such visits are to find out the implementation bottlenecks and to suggest changes in existing policy and guidelines.