Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena has advised Top Mandarins to speed up level of spending in the State.
All Secretaries meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Shri Jena was held at Kharbela Bhawan on Friday. The meeting was attended by Development Commissioner
Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Commissioners and Secretaries of all other departments.
The meeting highlighted the financial performance of the state and various departments by December 2023.
On the basis of the performance of various departments, Chief Secretary Shri Jena has given necessary instructions and suggestions to take immediate steps so that the performance of work and expenditure accordingly is better in the coming months. At the outset of the meeting, the Chief Secretary emphasized on the Puri Srimandir Parikrama Project to be inaugurated on January 17 and gave necessary instructions and suggestions to cooperate in making all the departmental works involved in it on a priority basis.
At the outset of the meeting, Development Commissioner Smt. Garg highlighted the remarkable achievements of various departments in the month of December last year. In December, Odisha Millet Mission, awarded as a world-class model for the promotion of millets, the laxmi bus service was started in Koraput, the inauguration of The Pabitramohan Medical College and Hospital in Talcher, the introduction of the BSKY new card, the raghurajpur shilpigram model of Puri district- Odisha’s advertisement medha. He highlighted the need to create 7500 jobs by sanctioning 19 projects of the Industries Department under the single window system. He also gave details of the achievements of all other departments and highlighted the preparations for the launch of the Srimandir Parikrama Project.
Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, Secretary, Department of Mission Shakti, Odia Language, Literature and Culture presented the preparations for organizing the World Odia Language Conference to be held in the state for three days from February 3 to 5.
In this regard, the Chief Secretary sought the cooperation of all the concerned departments for the successful conduct of the programme and gave necessary instructions and suggestions.
Shri Jena suggested that the letters and letters should be used extensively in Odia language as well as the secretaries and officials were using the letter head in English language for sending letters to their respective work.
In the secretary-level meeting, Principal Secretary, Finance, Vishal Kumar Dev presented in details the financial performance of the state and various departments and the state by December 2023.
It was informed in the meeting that as per the budget provisions, the overall expenditure rate of various departments was 48.30 per cent at the end of December 2022 and 53.35 per cent at the end of December 2023.
As a result, the rate of investment has increased. Expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors has increased to 55.27% this year as compared to 53.92% last year.
Social sectors such as health, social security, education, Mission Shakti, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes welfare are 58.35 per cent this year as compared to 53.61 per cent last year.
According to the budgetary allocation, the expenditure last year has increased from 15 per cent at the same time to 27 per cent by the end of December 2023. The expenditure rate on various programmes was 46.30 per cent as of December-2022 and 50.49 per cent as of December 2023.
The expenditure on various programmes in agriculture and allied sectors, water resources, fisheries and livestock, cooperatives etc. is higher than last year.
Similarly, in the infrastructure development sector, expenditure on public works, housing and urban development, rural development and energy programs has increased.
The Chief Secretary stressed on the need to expedite the budget-wise work and expenditure investment in the coming months of the current financial year and especially to speed up infrastructure development projects such as education, road construction.
It was informed in the meeting that the total revenue collection from revenue collection through land revenue, excise, GST collection and other measures has increased by 19.9 per cent compared to December last year. Sales tax (VAT) collection till December stood at Rs 25,768.63 crore, an increase of 21.36 per cent over december-2022, contributing significantly to revenue collection.
There has been an increase of 20.22% in non-revenue tax. The meeting suggested that electricity distribution companies should set an example by becoming ideal consumers by paying the outstanding electricity bills in various government offices as they have not been paid to the electricity distribution companies.
The meeting also emphasised on the issue of issuance of investment letters relating to the work done for the release of special grant assistance to the state.
Principal Secretary, Skill Development and Technical Education,Usha Padhi presented that there will be a “skill calendar” on skill development in the district so that the youth can take advantage of it.
She sought the cooperation of all the departments for the preparation of skill development programmes as they are being carried out through various departments.