Odisha registers 7 per cent increase in revenue collection

Odisha has registered a 7 per cent increase in revenue collection till August during the 2019-20 fiscal, officials said.

This was revealed by state Finance secretary A K Meena during a review meeting presided by Chief Secretary A K Tripathy.

Meena said total revenue generation increased to around Rs 12,315 crore against collection of Rs 11,758 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

While the non-tax revenue collection increased by 12 per cent over the previous year, the own tax collection amount was more by 5 per cent during the same period, Meena said.

Replying a question, Meena said expenditure slowed down because of the general elections during initial 2-3 months of the current financial year. The programme expenditure up to August declined by 4 per cent in comparison to the same period of last fiscal year, he said.

The programme expenditure till August 2018 was around 32 per cent of the budget provision against which the expenditure till August this year was 28 per cent of the budgeted allocation.

The chief secretary has directed the secretaries of different departments to expedite implementation of the projects and utilization of the budgeted amount in coming months.

Tripathy also asked the secretaries to implement the reforms in the field of budget preparation, strengthen macro- fiscal forecasting, annual and medium-term budgeting and introducing commitment control system for uninterrupted financing to various projects and programmes.

Making an appraisal of the progress of the projects under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), Development Commissioner S C Mohapatra said total collection under DMF up to August this fiscal was Rs 8,252 crore.

Around 71 per cent of the funds (Rs 5,722 crore) was allocated to 9,241 projects under priority activities of DMF like drinking water, education, environmental preservation, pollution control, health care, sanitation, skill development, welfare of women and Children, housing, livelihood creation programs, and connectivity.

Out of this 73.50 per cent was utilized till August, he said.