Revenue up 10% despite mining blues

Odisha's overall revenue grew 10.09 per cent last fiscal despite recessionary trends and tepid collection from the mining sector, the biggest contributor to the state's non-tax revenue basket.

The state's tax and non-tax revenue in 2014-15 totalled to Rs 27,820 crore, helped by buoyant collection in segments like land revenue, stamp & registration, state excise, entry tax, profession tax and electricity duties. The total collection from own tax revenue has been around Rs 19, 996 crore against the Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 19,862 crore. Collections from non-tax sources like industrial water rate, forest & wildlife, irrigation water, departmental receipts and interests & dividends have exceeded the Budgeted target.

Mining revenue collection at Rs 5,308 crore in last fiscal was lower than Rs 5,674 crore achieved in 2013-14 and fell short of the ambitious target of Rs 6,600 crore set by the chief secretary. The chief secretary G C Pati has emphasised on taking up reform measures like simplification of tax rules, application of IT and reduction in the cost of compliance to tax norms for augmenting revenue collection during 2015-16. It has been decided that an institutional mechanism will be put in place to introduce reforms, undertake regular review of the collection position and suggest necessary measures for further improvement on regular basis.

R Balakrishnan, additional chief secretary (finance) has highlighted the need for higher revenue augmentation during 2015-16 for supporting higher plan outlay, enhanced level of capital investment and accelerating economic growth.