Supplementary budget to shrink amid low spending by Odisha govt depts

While eight departments have spent less than 20 per cent, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department being among the lowest, 11 major departments have spent less than 30 per cent.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi (Photo | Express)

BHUBANESWAR: Amid low spending by several departments, Odisha’s supplementary budget for 2024-25 is expected to shrink as compared to previous financial years.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will present the supplementary budget on November 26, the first day of the winter session of the Assembly.

Sources said, total expenditure of the budget provision stood at 30.93 per cent in the first six months of the financial year as compared to 35.21 per cent during the same period in previous year prompting the departments to rework on the supplementary proposals. Majhi had presented a budget of Rs 2.65 lakh crore in July.

While eight departments have spent less than 20 per cent, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department being among the lowest, 11 major departments have spent less than 30 per cent. The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department comes second after Tourism with both spending only 4.81 per cent and 4.67 per cent of their allocations, respectively.

The rest of the major departments with less than 20 per cent expenditure are Sports and Youth Services (5.67 per cent), Transport (8.38 per cent), Panchayatiraj and Drinking Water (11.71 per cent), Mission Shakti (12.73 per cent), Housing and Urban Development (18.16 per cent) and Agriculture (18.68 per cent).

“Despite sufficient funds being allocated, expenditure has been slow across several key sectors, including food supplies, agriculture, education, panchayatiraj, infrastructure, women and child development. This trend could be attributed to delay in budget provisioning, project approvals and administrative bottlenecks,” sources said.

Six major departments, including Works, Health, and Social Security and Empowerment of Persons With Disabilities departments have spent more than 40 per cent of their budget allocation.

Earlier, the government had made it clear that the additional allocation proposals made by the departments, where expenditure is less than 30 per cent of the budget provision till September 30, will not be considered for inclusion in the supplementary budget. “Since the spending by half of the departments is less than 30 per cent, the supplementary budget for 2024-25 is expected to be around Rs 15,000 crore or less. Departments have been asked to accelerate spending and ensure effective utilisation of the remaining funds,” said the sources.

The utilisation in the Agriculture and allied sector was 27.65 per cent as against 41.65 per cent in 2023-24 and infrastructure spending was 29.4 per cent. In the last fiscal, the expenditure on infrastructure was 33.3 per cent. Similarly, the social sector spending was 32.65 per cent as compared to 39.34 per cent previous year.

On the programme expenditure front, the utilisation dropped by more than 5.66 per cent as only 26.37 per cent was spent till the end of September. During the same period of last fiscal, it was 32.03 per cent. However, the total expenditure has increased by 2.54 per cent and programme expenditure by 1.39 per cent in absolute terms due to increase in budget allocation by 16.73 per cent and programme expenditure by 23.15 per cent.