Supplementary budget of Rs 4502cr presented in Odisha assembly

Amidst ruckus in Odisha Assembly and opposition's attack on BJD government over chitfund scam, state Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat today presented a supplementary budget of Rs 4,502.34 crore for 2014-15 fiscal.
Stating that the supplementary budget sought to meet the requirement of funds for public welfare and development activities, Amat said Rs 2,536.87 crore was earmarked for non-plan head while Rs 1,960.30 crore was meant for state plan.
"Supplementary provision of Rs 4,502.34 crore is to be financed by tied-up resources to the extent of Rs 2,662.57 crore, surrender of provision in grants and appropriation to the extent of Rs 1,265.47 crore and Rs 574.30 crore through savings and surrenders towards the end of the financial year," he said.

Of Rs 1,960.30 crore under the state plan head, Amat has kept highest amount of Rs 679.76 crore for Nirmal Bharat Yojana, followed by Rs 225.77 crore for integrated watershed management programme, Rs 137.34 crore for other schemes in agriculture sector and Rs 116 crore towards infrastructure development in technical education, among others.
Similarly, while Rs 300 crore has been kept for the corpus fund for protection of interest of investors under non-plan head, Rs 250 crore has been given for special calamity assistance for procurement of paddy to farmers, Rs 54.59 crore towards relief expenditure and Rs 1,475.16 crore towards repayment of liability. The balance Rs 457.12 crore is towards salary and other expenditure.

Admitting that the state's revenue collection has declined by September, the state Finance Minister said the government was confident of meeting its target. He said the overall tax collection has increased by 2.2 per cent even as there has been increase in tax collection by 11 per cent under tax category and a decline by 17.43 per cent in non-tax category.

Amat said there had been decline in revenue collection by 20.62 per cent in the mining sector.
"We are confident that the gap in the mining sector revenue collection will be adjusted in coming days," said additional chief secretary, finance U N Behera outside the house.

The supplementary budget was presented amid uproar as opposition Congress and BJP members were on their feet hitting out at the Naveen Patnaik government and holding it responsible for the alleged plunder of people's hard-earned money in the chitfund scam.