Plan expenditure of 13 departments less than 10 per cent in April-September

Timely expenditure of funds, both Central and state, continues to be a cause of concern for the Orissa government. Thirteen out of 38 departments of the state government have not been able to achieve even 10 per cent of the Plan expenditure by the end of September this year.

This is despite the efforts of the state finance department to avoid rush in expenditure in the last quarter of a fiscal through the introduction of 'Cash Management System' in 10 key departments. This system stipulates that the departments need to achieve at least 15 per cent of the Plan expenditure in the first quarter (April-June) and 60 per cent by the end of December.

The departments whose spending is woeful in the April-September period of 2010-11 are industries (1.56 per cent), home (5.16 per cent), general administration (7.99 per cent), transport (7.53 per cent), steel & mines education (2.4 per cent), excise (0 per cent), energy (8.24 per cent), and public enterprises (0 per cent) to name a few. It may be noted that the departments of public enterprises, excise and public grievances and pension administration have been unable to spend even a single rupee in this period.

The overall Plan expenditure for all the 38 departments stands at Rs 3522.02 crore in the April-September period which is 27.26 per cent of the Plan provision of Rs 12917.78 crore for the current financial year.

For industries department, the total plan expenditure in the said period is only Rs 6.09 crore, which is a meagre 1.56 per cent of the total Plan provision of Rs 389.18 crore.The energy department has been a laggard too, with the Plan expenditure at Rs 38.61 crore which is merely 8.24 per cent of the Plan provision of Rs 468.44 crore.

The department of Cooperation has been the best performing department with a Plan expenditure of 57.39 per cent. As against the total Plan provision of Rs 91.48 crore, the department has already spent Rs 52.50 crore by the end of September.

The Plan expenditure by the Panchayati Raj department has also been high at 54.33 per cent. The department has already spent Rs 465.47 crore out of the total Plan provision of Rs 856.67crore.