Plan, Non-Plan spending at 63 per cent in April-January

Government departments have clocked Plan and Non-Plan sending of 62.8 per cent in the April-January period of 2011-12.

According to state finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, of the total Plan and Non-Plan provision of Rs 46047.75 crore for the current fiscal, the actual expenditure stood at Rs 28916.20 crore by the end of January.

Agriculture and cooperation departments have been the clear winners on the expenditure front, recording spending of 86.95 per cent and 86.04 per cent respectively.

Other departments with impressive expenditure include parliamentary affairs (78.83 per cent), labour & employment (80.02 per cent), women & child development (74.53per cent), information & public relations (71.94 per cent), steel & mines (62.34 per cent), home (69.75 per cent), revenue (74.58 per cent), school & mass education (70.25 per cent), panchayati raj (67.87 per cent) and health & family welfare (67.34 per cent).

IT department is placed at the bottom, recording spending of only 18.10 per cent. Of the total provision of Rs 111.17 crore, the department has managed to spend only Rs 20.12 crore.

The expenditure of energy department is also lukewarm at 19.88 per cent.

Other departments with below par spending are excise (55.05 per cent), rural development (52.26 per cent), public enterprises (51.59 per cent), general administration (54.66 per cent), Orissa legislative assembly (47.52 per cent), food supplies and consumer welfare (43.81 per cent), sports & youth affairs (50.12 per cent), industries (42.39 per cent) and water resources (50.83 per cent).

The spending targets by these companies are not in sync with the Cash Management System introduced by the state finance department in 2010-11 to curb rush of expenditure towards the fag end of any financial year.

The system envisages at least 60 per cent spending in the first three quarters of a fiscal (April-December period), limiting expenditure level to 40 per cent in the last quarter (January-March) and 15 per cent in the last month (March).