The vote on account presented by Orissa finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai in the state assembly today seeks to focus on completion of on-going projects, augmentation of resources, socio-economic development of the poor, containment of non-plan expenditure, enhancement of investment in the infrastructure development and development of agriculture and allied activities among others.
Presenting the vote-on-account for the first four months (Apr-July) of the next fiscal, the finance minister said, the projection for the year as a whole shows that the total revenue receipt for 2010-11 will be Rs 30,602.06 crore.
Since the revenue expenditure has been pegged at Rs 31,807.99 crore, the state will have a revenue deficit of Rs 1205.93 crore for 2010-11, which is 0.71 per cent of the GDP.
On the other hand, the estimated expenditure in the capital account is likely to exceed the receipts by Rs 886.65 crore. So the total deficit in the Consolidated Fund is estimated at Rs 2090.58 crore.
Similarly the fiscal deficit is projected to be Rs 5282.34 crore for the next fiscal (representing 3.11 per cent of the GDP), which is lower than Rs 6004.32 crore fiscal deficit projected in the budget for 2009-10.
The budget proposes allocation of Rs 120 crore for Biju KBK Yojana, Rs 165 crore for Gopabandhu Grameen Yojana, Rs 1600 crore for Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, Rs 910 crore for Rs 2 per kg rice scheme for poor, Rs 595.24 crore towards the state’s share in the Sarva Sikshya Abhijan and Rs 205 crore for pre-matric scholarship for SC & ST students. The vote on account is pegged at Rs 17,078.25 crore for the first four months of the next fiscal, which would be able to defray expenses for implementation of all on-going non-plan and plan schemes.
Talking to the media after the presentation of the vote on account, the finance minister said, the government intends to achieve higher growth and reduce poverty significantly. Various measures have been taken for augmentation of revenue and the targets set in the 2009-10 budget would be exceeded by the end of this fiscal.
More From This Section
Finance secretary, Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said, the possible flow of central transfers following the implementation of the recommendation of the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) wasn’t factored into while preparing the Vote on Account. The revenue deficit projections in the vote on account would be lower when this is taken into account.
Though growth in the own tax revenue is projected to be about 15 percent, it could be higher due to better growth prospects in the coming fiscal.
As per the quick estimates, the national GDP is likely to grow by 10.8 percent while the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is likely to grow by 12.98 percent in 2009-10. Since one percent growth in the GSDP leads to more than proportionate growth in tax revenue, the 15 percent growth assumed in the vote on account may be moderate, Mohapatra added.
However, in view of low spending by various departments (50 percent of the plan outlay by December 2009), the government has revised the annual state plan outlay for 2009-10 to Rs 8500 crore, from Rs 9500 crore approved earlier. This is expected to reduce the revenue deficit for the current year significantly or may even eliminate it altogether, experts added.