The Orissa government is in the process of amending its Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act in accordance with the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.
The state government was awaiting the model draft amendment by the Government of India and it received the same on January 15 this year.
“The amendment to FRBM Act in the state would specify the debt-GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) targets for the state in the coming years. It would also put in place an independent monitoring mechanism for reviewing different fiscal indicators of the state”, an official source told Business Standard.
It may be noted that the 13th Finance Commission had recommended state governments to amend or enact FRBM Act. The enactment or amendment of FRBM Acts would be a precondition for all state specific grants and relief measures.
"Release of state specific grants amounting to Rs 1745 crore is contingent upon amendment or enactment of FRBM Act. Some of the grants have been recommended to be released during the current year and other grants would be released from 2011-12 onwards”, state finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai had stated in his Budget speech of 2010-11.
The finance minister reviewed the implementation of Budget announcements for 2010-11 b different departments.
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"As per the announcements made in the State Budget for 2010-11, the finance department has introduced Cash Management System in 10 departments- agriculture, higher education, school & mass education, health & family welfare, panchayati raj, women & child development, housing & urban development, works, rural development and water resources. Outcome Budgets have also been prepared for five departments- panchayati raj, women & child development, rural development, works and water resources”, Ghadai told reporters after the review meeting.
He pointed out that the finance department has also achieved other measures like bringing the DTH (Direct to Home) service under the ambit of Entertainment Tax, introduction of e-filing of VAT (Value Added Tax) and launch of e-payment of commercial taxes.For ground water utilization in drought prone areas, Ghadai said that there was a budgetary outlay of Rs 100 crore in the Budget for 2010-11 for commissioning of 5000 deep bore wells by March 2011 and out of this 2620 wells have been commissioned so far.
Moreover, Rs 100 crore was allocated for construction of 1000 check gates in 2010-11. The work on 263 check gates have been completed so far while work order has been issued for another 240 gates.
The Budget for 2010-11 had also announced the exemption of royalty on minor minerals used for schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Indira Awas Yojana and Mo Kudia scheme. The proposal is pending with the state steel & mines department to bring out the necessary notification under Orissa Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1990.