The Centre may soon compensate Odisha for the revenue loss incurred by reduction of Central Sales Tax (CST) at least for one year.
This was assured by Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley when Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik called on him at New Delhi today.
At the meeting, Patnaik pointed out that the state's fiscal health has been strained on account of reduction of Central Sales Tax from 4 per cent to 2 per cent and non-fulfilment of commitment of the central government to compensate the state towards CST loss till implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST).
He informed the finance minister that during 2010-11, the state received Rs 256 crore compensation as against the loss assessment of Rs 664 crore and that no compensation has been received during the last three years from 2011-12 to 2013-14.
He impressed upon Jaitley to either fully compensate the state for the CST loss or restore the CST rate to original 4 per cent till implementation of the GST.
Patnaik also told Jaitley that the state has not been provided with interim assistance of Rs 500 crore from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) for 'Hudhud' till date and is yet to receive Rs 399.83 crore due from NDRF on account of 'Phailin' storm last year.
He stated that the decision of the Centre to utilize the entire corpus of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 for Phailin, which occurred in 2013, is not justified and if gratuitous relief and input subsidy for Phailin are met out of SDRF account pertaining to 2014-15, there will be no balance left in the SDRF account for immediate relief and urgent restoration works.
He urged the finance minister to recognize the genuine needs of the state and release the balance amount of Rs 399.83 crore due for Phailin and an interim assistance of Rs 500 crore for Hudhud from NDRF, similar to the advance of Rs.1000 crore already released to Andhra Pradesh.
Patnaik said, lack of adequate Central assistance for flagship programmes including Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has adversely affected the finances of the state and the pace of implementation of these programmes. He said, under AIBP, Odisha received only Rs 38.24 crore in 2012-13 against the actual expenditure of Rs 1088.62 crore and in 2013-14, the state received Rs 15.23 crore against the actual spending of Rs 967.57 crore. Similarly, under MGNREGS, Odisha received only Rs 757.52 crore during 2013-14 against an allocation of Rs 1363.50 crore. He urged Jaitley to make adequate provision of Central Plan Assistance for clearing the huge backlog commitment of the Central government to the state under these flagship programmes.
The chief minister informed the finance minister that till date, 4597 gram panchayats constituting 3/4th of the state did not have any bank branch. He stated that there is an urgent need for having a bank branch of a scheduled commercial bank in every gram panchayat of the state for ensuring financial inclusion.
Accordingly, he requested Jaitely to issue necessary instructions to the banks to provide required logistics and manpower support for opening brick and mortar branches in all unbanked gram panchayats as per the schedule finalized by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC).
Patnaik pleaded that the Left Wing Extremism affected districts should also be included under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in the first phase itself. Some special efforts should be made to provide necessary infrastructure, telecom connectivity and banking services in remote, far flung and difficult areas to ensure that different services are provided to the most vulnerable in these areas for achieving an inclusive growth.
