‘Life Before Everything Else’ To Be The Guiding Principle Of Odisha Govt’s Fiscal Strategy

Bhubaneswar : ‘Life before everything else’ will be the guiding principle of the financial strategy of the Odisha government in view of the evolving crisis arising out of the Covid pandemic, informed Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy today.

Briefing newsmen after a meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Tripathy said that the Council of Ministers has given its in-principle approval to a slew of measures to be adopted as part of the financial strategy for meeting the Covid crisis.

The in-principle decisions taken by the Council of Ministers, in a nutshell, are that all social security measures will continue; health, education and livelihood interventions will get priority; ongoing work will not be stopped; new expenditure in the non-priority sector will be restricted; the government will go for prudent borrowing, and a new way of working especially digital working will be accelerated, the Chief Secretary stated.

Tripathy said that in view of the Covid crisis budgetary allocations to all departments need to be relooked into.

He stated that all expenditures of the Health Department is the topmost priority of the government and added that as per the in-principle decision of the Council of Ministers medical expenditure, expenditure for medical equipment will be fully funded by the government and no inadequacies will be permitted.

Secondly, in the social sector interventions for income generation of the economically vulnerable groups like migrant labourers in interior pockets will be aggressively pursued, the Chief Secretary informed.

That apart, all social security measures of the State Government will be given the topmost priority, he added.

The Council of Ministers has decided that there will be no compromise made in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, and fisheries sectors, Tripathy stated.

He pointed out that capital expenditure on new schemes in non-priority sectors will be restricted.

As the State Government anticipates that there will be a fall in devolution of funds from the Central Government, the State Government has to go for market borrowing within 3.5% as allowed under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM), he said.

He told that sufficient funds are available with the government under CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act) funds and Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) fund.

“We are borrowing from CAMPA and OMBADC funds which have a low-interest rate of 3% instead of expensive market borrowing,” the Chief Secretary clarified.

While informing that the State Government has already borrowed Rs 1,000 crore from the aforementioned funds he said that the State Government has obtained permission from the oversight authority for use of OMBADC funds and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the same.

Tripathy said that apart the State Government will be giving priority to spending from its budget to leverage externally aided projects like RIDF and EAP to avail very low-cost pre-committed borrowing.

The Chief Secretary further stated that the Council of Ministers gave its approval to a proposal to mobilize funds of different old and new schemes lying idle in various departments without compromising the work for which it was meant for after scrutiny by the Finance department.

While informing that funds to the tune of Rs 16,000 to Rs 17,000 crore of the State Government were locked in litigations in various departments especially in Water Resources, Energy and Commercial Tax departments, Tripathy said that the Council of Ministers approved a proposal to recover those funds through One Time Settlement (OTS).

The Chief Secretary stated that specific action as required for different aspects of the strategy like rationalisation of capital expenditure and how ongoing work will be completed so that people get its benefit fast will be reflected in the supplementary budget during the Assembly session in October.