Capital expenditure in Odisha has logged growth of 25.05 per cent in 2012-13 to reach Rs 5,622.18 crore as against Rs 4,496.08 crore in 2011-12 though it fell short of the budgeted figure of Rs 7,042.93 crore.
The share of capital expenditure (excluding loans and advances) as a percentage of total expenditure has increased from 11.30 per cent in 2011-12 to 12.76 per cent in 2012-13.
"Spending on infrastructure projects by some engineering departments like housing & urban development has looked up in 2012-13 and this has contributed to enhanced capital expenditure. However, there is still a need to step up capital expenditure substantially. Given the limit of fiscal deficit at three per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and the emergence of fiscal surplus, there is fiscal space available to increase capital outlay from the present level of around two per cent to five per cent of GSDP," said a finance department official.
Though the Budget for 2012-13 had projected a fiscal deficit of Rs 4,751.93 crore, the state closed the fiscal with a tiny fiscal surplus of Rs 3.61 crore. At the end of 2011-12, the state had piled up a significant fiscal surplus of Rs 621.76 crore.
Similarly, revenue surplus at the end of 2012-13 stood at Rs 5,699.35 crore against the Budget estimate of Rs 2,410.76 crore. This is marginally higher than the revenue surplus of Rs 5,606.78 crore which the state government had notched up at the close of 2011-12.
Revenue expenditure at Rs 38,237.56 crore was an achievement of 92.29 per cent of BE of Rs 41,431.98 crore in 2012-13. Interest expenditure was budgeted at Rs 4,511.59 crore but the actual expenditure on account of interest payment was Rs 2,807.23 crore which is 7.34 per cent of the aggregate revenue expenditure.
Social sector expenditure rose from Rs 14,994.90 crore to Rs 16,181.47 crore, registering a growth of 7.91 per cent. Development expenditure, on the other hand, grew 11.48 per cent in the same period from Rs 27,308.37 crore to Rs 30,443.76 crore. The state government met the targets of Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Management (FRBM) Act on key fiscal parameters like fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, and interest payments as a percentage of revenue receipts and debt stock/GSDP ratio.
The state has been maintaining zero revenue deficit since 2005-06 while fiscal deficit has been contained within three per cent of GSDP since 2004-05 in tune with the FRBM targets. The ratio of interest payment to revenue receipts in 2011-12 was 6.40 per cent whereas at the end of 2012-13, the ratio has reduced slightly to 6.39 per cent. As per stipulations of FRBM Act, the ratio of interest payment to revenue receipts should not exceed 15 per cent.
