Odisha's revenue dips 4% in April-May

Mining revenue plunges 27%

The state government's revenue collection dipped 4.08 per cent in the April-May period of this fiscal as mining revenue decelerated by 27.64 per cent in the period.The state's total tax and non-tax revenue by the end of May totaled to Rs 2943.78 crore compared to Rs 3069.08 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

Mining royalty fell sharply to Rs 677.35 crore from Rs 936.07 crore causing the state's non-tax revenue to slide 21.24 per cent. Total non-tax revenue dropped from Rs 1099.06 crore to Rs 865.97 crore.

Mining revenue, the biggest contributor to the state's non-tax revenue kitty, was hit by the Supreme Court order in May calling for suspension of 26 mines operating under provisions of deemed extension. The apex court order held that mines awaiting second and subsequent renewal could not continue operation unless the state government passed express orders.

Though the state government complying with the SC order has passed orders for allowing operations of eight mines, including those of Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and state run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), the balance 18 mine leases are still under temporary suspension.

Within the state's own tax revenue base, collection rose by a modest 5.47 per cent from Rs 1970.02 crore to Rs 2077.83 crore. This was mainly boosted by spurt in taxes on motor vehicles and taxes on electricity duty by 20.93 per cent and 19.82 per cent respectively.But segments like land revenue and stamps & registration showed negative growth.

Land revenue fell 31.47 per cent while collection from stamps & registration slumped by 24.01 per cent.As opposed to revenue, expenditure showed a marked improvement in the April-May period of 2014-15. Total State Plan expenditure was recorded at Rs  2436.66 crore. This represented 7.35 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 33134.34 crore as against 5.68 per cent of the Budgeted spending clocked in the same period of 2013-14.Expenditure under agriculture and allied sectors improved from 4.91 per cent to 6.17 per cent of BE.

Similarly, infrastructure spending moved up from 9.90 per cent to 10.59 per cent.

Also, social sector spending went up from 5.77 per cent to 6.75 per cent of BE.