The revenue collection of Odisha faces a downfall of 23% for the first quarter of the current financial year 2020-21 as compared to last year. According to officials, the current downfall is due to an economic slowdown caused by Covid-19.
State finance secretary, Ashok Meena said that the total revenue collection up to June is at Rs 8,204 crore, as compared to the last year’s collection of Rs 10,645 crore.
Due to this decrease, the state is facing a drop of over 35% in the collection of revenues such as excise, Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST), stamp duties and registration.
Meanwhile, the non-tax revenue collections went up by around 3% during the same period, aided by mining royalty. Last year, the collection was Rs 3,506 crore, which has increased to Rs 3,609 crore during this year. Meanwhile, the GST collection has fallen by 35.25%. The gross GST collection in the April-June period of 2020-21 fiscal is Rs 5,192.30 crore, as against Rs 8,019.44 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2019-20.
Officials from the finance department informed that programme expenditures of all departments have gone down. The expenditure is reduced by around 5.06% in comparison to the last fiscal. The total programme expenditure for the quarter was 8,923 crore against Rs 9,399 crore during the same period in the last fiscal. The expenditure was capped on most state schemes, other than those related to agriculture and its allied sectors.
Notably, the finance department has announced a ban on the creation of new posts, except in the state health and family welfare department. The priority for the state, in the current scenario, is to allocate all necessary funds towards battling Covid-19.