Bhubaneswar: Spending in the State has gained momentum with more funds are spent by social and agriculture sector.
The financial performance report placed in all Secretaries meet recently revealed that total expenditure as percentage of Budget provision is 17.33 Percent till June, 2021 which shows 2.98 PC more budget utilization as compared to the previous year.
The utilization in agriculture & allied sector is 16.80 PC as compared to 3.99PC previous year, which is mainly because of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT ) of KALIA Funds to the farmer’s account, officials said on Sunday.
While more funds are pumped into Infrastructure sector, the spending is 9.16 PC against 9.48 PC previous year. It is a bit low due to continuous lock down and shut down, officials added.
The percentage utilization of budget in social sector is 20.98 when compared to 17.14 PC of the previous year.
According to these officials, the programme expenditure as percentage of Budget provision is 17.01 till June 2021 when compared to 11.07PC during previous year.
The budget utilization has increased by about 6 PC. Increase in expenditure by 55.6PC against 1.28PC increase in budget provision.
A reasonable level of programme expenditure is there in spite of the second wave of Covid-19 and resultant lockdown across the State. The programme expenditure in agriculture and allied sector till June, 2021 has been 16.88 PC of Budget Estimate (BE) compared to the 2.01PC previous year.
The budget utilization increased by about 14.87 PC over previous year primarily because of fund transfer under “KALIA”.
The Programme Expenditure in Infrastructure has increased marginally by about 4.17 PC against previous year while the social sector programme expenditure till June, 2021 is 21.56 PC of BE compared to 14.42 PC against previous year.
Programme expenditure in other sectors till June 2021 has been 10.12 PC compared to 18.42 PC previous year, the officials said adding, the total programme expenditure till June 2021 is 17.01 PC in comparison to 11.07 PC previous year.
There has been an increase in Budget utilization by 5.94 PC in program expenditure during this period. Though the expenditure remained subdued during April and May, it has shown visible progress during the month of June, 2021.
However, the department officials will have to take steps to further increase the pace of expenditure for revival of the economy and employment generation as the expenditure for COVID management and related expenditure should be fully funded.
According to the officials, there should be special emphasis to be given to increase Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and high impact new capital projects may also be worked out for funding in medium term.
Notably, the State Government is pumping more funds for implementation of CAPEX program and a large number of flagship programmes under 5T initiative has been unveiled.