BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Government’s announcement of the Rs 17,000 crore package for livelihood restoration comes in the backdrop of huge economic loss caused by the lockdown and has prompted the Opposition to question where such massive funds would be sourced from.
Official sources said the package is heavily reliant on funds to be received under MGNREGS. The State seems to bank on Rs 6,440 crore it plans to spend under MGNREGS as well as the special Covid package of the Central Government. If everything works out, both may come in the Rs 9,000 crore - Rs 10,000 crore range.
According to the latest Ecowrap Report of SBI, the total loss of GSDP in Odisha caused by Covid-19 is estimated at Rs 54,033 crore across the three zones during the financial year 2020-21. This, the report, says is 10 per cent of the GSDP and State’s share in the loss stands at 1.8 per cent.
With Government’s major revenue taking a hit, provisioning for the package is going to be a tough ask. Official sources feel that the State’s tax and non-tax revenue will be severely hit and the huge deficit to the State’s economy is yet to be fully assessed since share in Central taxes and grants are also going to be affected badly. With the Government busy grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, the full impact of the economic crisis is yet to sink in.
OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik described the livelihood package as unrealistic and sought to know ‘whether the Council of Ministers or bureaucrats are running the Government.’In the 2020-21 Budget, the Government had anticipated revenue receipts of Rs 1,24,300 crore including State’s own tax at Rs 38,350 crore and non-tax revenue at Rs 17,650 crore. State’s share of Central taxes was estimated at Rs 36,300 crore and Central grants at Rs 32,000 crore.
With the economy hit because of the two-month long extended lockdown, it is expected that there will be huge cuts in all these fields. Besides, activities under MGNREGS being labour-intensive, works would be hit from the middle of June because of monsoon onset. This may pose a problem.
Besides, the Government must be hoping that migrant workers take to mostly manual activities since a large chunk of the workforce that has returned is skilled or semi-skilled. Patnaik, Meanwhile, has demanded a special session of the Assembly convened immediately to discuss the State of economy and the growing unemployment crisis.
Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Panchanan Kanungo also criticised the Government for enhancing the agricultural loan amount to Rs 9,000 crore from Rs 7,500 crore. The Government says this will help 24 lakh farmer families but Kanungo wondered how the loan will be accessible to sharecroppers who account for 76 per cent.