BHUBANESWAR: Odisha might have made a transformation from a revenue-deficit economy to a revenue-surplus one, but the excess is majorly due to a substantial decline in revenue spending and capital expenditure. As per the latest State Finances Audit Report, revenue expenditure of the State has decreased by Rs 3,826 crore in the face of Rs 2,819 crore increase in receipts in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.
Expenditure under social services reduced significantly by Rs 3,616 crore from Rs 43,517 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 39,901 crore in 2020-21. Even as Odisha fared favourably in its focus on development expenditure, economic services expenditure, and education expenditure, it lagged behind other states in the areas of healthcare expenditure and social services expenditure.
The major decrease in expenditure of Rs 2,394 crore during 2020-21 was under social security and welfare due to less spending in pension-social security scheme, child welfare and other programmes. Further, there was Rs 1,709 crore reduction in water supply and sanitation expenditure.
Agriculture spending also saw a drop of Rs 2,847 crore due to a decrease in expenditure on farmers’ welfare scheme Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) Yojana and Jalanidhi scheme. The audit also found that expenditure on relief on account of natural calamity dropped from Rs 4,290 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 2,653 crore in 2020-21.
The total expenditure was Rs 1,14,857 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 1,20,673 crore in 2019-20 as against the budget estimate of Rs 1.5 lakh crore and Rs 1.39 lakh crore respectively. Revenue Expenditure of Rs 95,311 crore was 3.86 per cent lower than Rs 99,137 crore in 2019-20. The decrease over the previous year was mainly due to lower outgo on agriculture and allied activities, social welfare and nutrition, water supply, sanitation, housing and urban development and welfare of SCs, STs, minorities and OBCs.
Similarly, capital expenditure of Rs 17,949 crore was 11.48 per cent lower than Rs 20,277 crore in 2019-20. “The revenue surplus of Rs 9,076 crore in 2020-21 significantly increased by 273 per cent from the surplus of Rs 2,430 crore in 2019-20 due to low spending. There has been a decline in the capital expenditure from 2017-18 to 2020-21,” the report stated.
Economists expressed concern over declining capital expenditure as it directly contributes to asset creation and is critical to the welfare of the population while the revenue expenditure helps in the maintenance of assets and meeting the debt servicing obligations of the State.