Bhubaneswar: The overdrive for collection of revenue has enabled the State Government to collect nearly Rs.10,000 crore on an average per month.
In September, 2021, the State Government collected Rs.9805 crore and maintained the growth trend, officials admit.
State Government’s latest report on State Revenue presented the details on various revenue generations, which is experiencing positive growth of more than 25 per cent.
While it was targeted to collect Rs.1, 25, 600 crore during 2021-22, by September 30, the State Government has been able to collect Rs.57, 628 crore– nearly 46 percent of the Budget Estimate for revenue collection.
The total revenue receipts include own tax, own non-tax and share & grants from Center, which was Rs.1,06,891 crore in 2020-21.
While nearly Rs.20,000 crore more revenue was expected, trends show that there will be more collection, said officials.
While the State’s own tax revenue and own non-tax revenue collection is on the rise, grants and share tax from Center has fallen sharply, the officials said.
So far as own tax revenue is concerned, the State Government has been able to collect Rs.11,753 crore, registering a growth of nearly 31 Percent and nearly 47 Percent of the Budget Estimate target.
While the revenue collection is on the rise, expenditure by several development departments marked a sharp hike. But spending on infrastructure is not picking up, which causes worry, they said.
The Agriculture Department has topped the list of spending with 49.96 percent of the budget estimate. Expenditure in the primary sector has been stressed more by the State Government as the farm sector needs more fund infusion during the post Covid scenario.
However, the FARD sector has not been able to match the spending level of agriculture, though this primary sector has more scope to spend funds that would help improve income of farmers.
The Food Supply and Consumer Welfare, which is implementing the National Food Security Program, has been able to spend 45.73 percent of the budget estimate.
The social sector spending is on rise with departments like Women & Child Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water, co-operation, Social Security, Disaster Management etc while Industry and MSME sectors have not come up to the expectation.
Official sources said that the State Government is harping on more spending in the Infrastructure sector as more funds have been allocated in the capital sector. This is done to boost the state’s infrastructure development and pumping of more funds to the people’s projects.
Spending during the first six months of the current fiscal is Rs.50,465 crore against Rs.42,510 crore spent during the corresponding period previous year. The percentage of budget utilization is 34.7 as compared to the 30.10 percent the previous year.
The program expenditure during April-September 2021 is Rs.24, 233 crore as compared to the Rs.19,266 crore during the corresponding period of previous year.
The percentage of budget utilization is 31.5 as compared to 25.3 PC previous year.