COVID blow to Odisha’s industrial economy

Total tax revenue collection drops by 24.11 pc as only Rs 3,445 crore could be collected during April - July.
Representational image. (Express Illustration)
Representational image. (Express Illustration)

BHUBANESWAR: Industrial economy of the State had been adversely impacted during the April-July period following a series of lockdown restricting movements due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The total tax revenue collection has dropped by 24.11 per cent (pc) as only Rs  3,445 crore could be collected during April - July as against Rs  4,540 crore collected during the same period in 2019.

As per an internal report on the performance of the industrial economy in five different sectors - GST collection, railways freight traffic, port traffic, electricity consumption by industries, and investment proposals, the outbreak is having a deep impact on the overall economy as industries are yet to be fully functional. 

The GST collection in July and August though reached similar levels as was in 2019, it had a significant dip in April 2020 as compared to April 2019. It picked up in subsequent months after relaxation in lockdown guidelines.

The railway freight traffic was down by 14 pc as 57.20 million tonne (MT) of goods were handled by the East Coast Railway (ECoR) in April-July against 66.57 MT during the same period last year. The freight traffic is coming back to normalcy after significant dip in April as the month-over-month difference in July was only two pc.

However, there was no significant impact on cargo in three major ports in the State. While Paradip port handled 34.64 MT of cargo as compared to 38.09 MT during the same period last year, Dhamra port handled 7.04 MT against 7.16 MT in April-July, 2019.

Gopalpur port, however, achieved 184.35 pc growth as 3.38 MT of cargo was handled during April-July this year in comparison to 1.19 MT during the same period last year. There was only three pc decline in cargo handled by the three key ports in the State.

Several industries stopped operations in March - April leading to reduced power consumption. Sources said overall electricity consumption during April-July was 1,622 million unit against 2,377 MU during the same period in 2019. Revenue of the discoms dipped from Rs  1,546 crore to Rs  1,061 crore during the period. However, electricity consumption increased since April as industries resumed operations.

Principal Secretary of Industries Hemant Sharma said Covid has dealt a severe blow to industrial economy of the State. Though there is a slight reduction in the number of project proposals received, the proposed investment has improved significantly. The coming months will see renewed focus on new industries and also infrastructure projects, he added. 

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