The Orissa government’s effort to raise resources is likely to be adversely affected during the current fiscal due to the economic slow down.
The impact has already been felt in the collection of state’s own tax and non-tax revenue and reduced share in the share of the Central taxes in April this year.
In this context, vigorous efforts are required to augment the state’s resources along with rationalization of expenditure requirement, cautioned the Orissa Governor, M C Bhandare.
Addressing the members of the newly constituted state assembly here today, Bhandare said, the achievements of the government in various sectors was possible due to fiscal reforms carried out by the state government during last 9 years.
The debt stock had stabilised and declined over the years and after a gap of 61 years, the state was in a position to reduce its debt stock from Rs 37,249.51 crore in March 2007 to Rs 36,311.61 crore in March 2008.
He said, the capital outlay is on the increase continuously from Rs 1038.06 crore by March end, 2006 to Rs 1451.47 crore by March, 2007. This further increased to 2843.41 crore by March, 2008.
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“No effort has been spared to ensure that the development of infrastructure and maintainance of capital assets like roads, buildings, irrigation projects and other works don’t suffer”, the Governor said.
Depicting the health of the state’s economy, he said, the interest to revenue ratio declined to 14.4 percent in 2007-08 compared to 15 percent mandated by the Twelfth Finance Commission (TFC). Similarly, the ratio of the state’s own receipts to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) increased to 9.21 percent in 2007-08 compared to 5.64 percent in 1999-2000.
However, there is no room for complacency and the state government is committed to fiscal prudence as a strategy of development, he added.
Stating that the government is keen to promote sustainable and inclusive higher economic growth along with faster reduction of poverty in the state, the Governor said, irrigation is a critical infrastructure for agricultural growth and attempt is being made to provide 35 percent irrigation facilities in 198 blocks of the state.
While efforts are on to improve the seed replacement ratio (SRR) for paddy, soil testing and soil health cards are being promoted. Soil testing laboratories are being set up at Nuapada, Keonjhar, Angul, Baragarh, Raygada and Sonepur.
With a view to expedite the development of the backward KBK districts, the state government, in consultation with the Planning Commission, has developed an eight year perspective plan covering a period from 2009-10 to 2016-17. The project envisages an outlay of Rs 4550 crore and the approval of the Planning Commission is awaited. Besides, a resource mapping is being contemplated in each of the Gram Panchayats in KBK and western Orissa which will spur infrastructure development in these areas, he said.
On mineral sector, he said, 28 steel companies, who had signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government, have started partial production producing 4.01 million tonne per annum (MTPA) of steel, 5.16 mtpa of sponge iron, 0.63 mtpa of pig iron and 0.29 mtpa of ferro chrome. These units have provided direct employment to 15,842 persons and created indirect employment opportunities for another 37,653 persons.