The eastern region council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) would soon release reports on the state of finance in five states of eastern India- Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
The report which has been prepared by CII in association with global consultancy majors would help these states to raise additional revenue to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore.
These states would be able to raise this additional revenue by streamlining their administrative procedures and effecting some minor legislative changes without increasing the tax rates.
Mukul Somany, chairman of CII's eastern region said, “The report would be released first in Orissa either by the end of this month or in early April and subsequently in other states. The report for Orissa has been prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers.”
Apart from helping these states to generate additional revenue, the report would also analyze the expenditure of Central funds in these states and suggest measures for better utilization of these funds, he added.
Asked to comment on the additional revenue generation figure for Orissa, Somany said, the exact figure can be known only after the report is released but we hope that the state can generate Rs 1500 crore.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a session on 'Public Private Partnership (PPP) for Infrastructure Development' organized here by CII.
Earlier addressing the delegates, Somany said, “There is a huge demand for ports, railways and power in the country. The spending on infrastructure is only five per cent of the GDP and this needs to raised quickly. Infrastructure bottlenecks have been eroding the country's competitive edge.”
Speaking on the occasion, Saurabh Garg, the state industries secretary said, “Orissa's economy has been consistently growing above the national average for the past few years. Around 40 per cent of the villages in the state have all-weather roads and the state has a railway network of 15 km per 1000 km.”
Talking on PPP in the health sector Anu Garg, secretary, health and family welfare said, “In the health sector, we are looking for corporate partnerships in areas like reduction of infant and maternal mortality, setting up of tertiary care hospitals, improving the reach and quality of health services, sharing of skilled human resources as well as transport and referral services like mobile health units and ambulances.”
Presently, we have PPPs in areas like management of hospitals, implementation of the Arogya project, management of primary health centres and capacity building of Accredited Social Health Activists through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in all districts of the state, she added.
