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Capital expenditure in Odisha has decelerated in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, registering a negative growth of 0.29% compared to the corresponding period of 2012-13.
The capital expenditure excluding debt repayment and loans and advances was budgeted at Rs 7,840.13 crore against which Rs 942.65 crore has been incurred at the end of the first quarter (April-June).
"The downtrend in capital expenditure in the first quarter is due to tepid spending on infrastructure projects. There is ample scope to step up capital spending and we expect it to pick up in the subsequent quarters”, said a source at finance department.
Besides negative growth in capital expenditure, the slowing growth in the state's tax revenue, dwindling land revenue and motor vehicle tax collection and lacklustre growth in social sector spending in the period have emerged as areas of concern.
"Though the macro fiscal indicators have been achieved at desired levels, there is need for improvement both in realization of tax revenue and quality of expenditure for achieving sustainable development of the state”, U N Behera, additional chief secretary (finance), Odisha wrote in a file note sheet.
The collection in the state's own tax revenue is Rs 4832.04 crore by the end of June against the budgeted Rs 24430 crore. This represents a growth of 9.76%, slower than 13.86% in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.
Within the tax revenue base, collection from professional tax, stamp duty & registration fees, state excise, sales tax, entry tax and electricity duty have posted growth over the previous fiscal. However, there is a significant decline in collection in land revenue and motor vehicle tax. Land revenue in the period fell 28.93% while motor vehicle tax dropped 9.30% as against the same period of 2012-13.
Social sector spending was also not encouraging in the April-June period. Actual expenditure under this head was Rs 2756.17 crore compared to the budgeted outlay of Rs 19780.26 crore, meaning a growth of only 3.09% over the corresponding period of 2012-13.
Total expenditure during the first quarter of the current fiscal grew 8.26% at Rs 7969.96 crore.
Though a revenue surplus of Rs 1904.61 crore has been projected for 2013-14, the surplus is already Rs 2528.50 crore by the end of June.
Against a budgeted fiscal deficit of Rs 5945.13 crore for 2013-14, the state has achieved a fiscal surplus of Rs 1595.61 crore by June-end, indicating that the revenue surplus could not be absorbed fully by capital outlay.
