ODISHA PLAN SPENDING RISES BY 19%

The State Plan expenditure has grown by 19 per cent by December 31, 2017.
This was revealed at the all Secretaries’ meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi at the State Secretariat on Tuesday.
The total Plan expenditure by December-end was Rs29,542 crore against Rs24,761 crore spending recorded during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. However, the spending is nearly 58 per cent of the Budget estimate, sources said.
While expenditure in agriculture sector was Rs7,020 crore, the amount spent in infrastructure sector and social sector were Rs8,246 crore and Rs12,740 crore, respectively.
Besides, it was revealed that the revenue collection from own tax sources reached Rs15,164 crore despite market slowdown.
Total collection from tax and nontax sources stood at nearly Rs20,102 crore, which is less than one per cent of the total collection made during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
The Chief Secretary advised the Secretaries to keep up the pace of expenditure. Similarly, he asked the district Collectors and field officials to expedite ongoing projects and complete them before time.
Since no new work will be taken up because of the code of conduct in vogue due to the Panchayat polls, officials should focus on the ongoing work, said Padhi.
He also stressed on collection of revenue through electronic means such as GPF, RFID and mobile apps from April 1, 2017.