Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday apprised Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi that lack of adequate Central assistance has hit flagship programmes in the State.
Patnaik said the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have adversely affected the finances of the State Government and the pace of implementation of these programmes.He told Jaitley that under the AIBP, the State received only Rs38.24 crore in 2012-13 against an actual expenditure of Rs1,088.62 crore, and in the subsequent fiscal the State received a mere Rs15.23 crore against a spending of Rs967.57 crore.
Similarly, under MGNREGS, Odisha received only Rs757.52 crore during 2013-14 against an allocation of Rs1,363.50 crore.Patnaik said the State’s finances have been strained in recent years due to reduction in the Central Sales Tax (CST) from four per cent to two per cent and non-fulfillment of commitment of the Centre to compensate the State towards the CST loss till implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST).
He informed Jaitley that during 2010-11 the State received an amount of only Rs256 crore towards compensation against a loss assessment of Rs664 crore and that no compensation has been received during the last three fiscals.He impressed upon the Union Finance Minister to either fully compensate the State for the CST loss or restore the CST rate to original four per cent till implementation of the GST.
Patnaik told the Union Minister that 4,597 gram panchayats constituting 3/4th of the State do not have any bank branch and demanded a branch of a scheduled commercial bank in every GP to ensure financial inclusion.Accordingly, he urged Jaitley to issue instructions to the banks to provide required logistics for opening brick and mortar branches in all unbanked GPs as per the schedule finalised by the State level Bankers Committee.
The Chief Minister also demanded inclusion of Maoist-affected districts in the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana in the first phase itself and, accordingly provide necessary infrastructure, telecom connectivity and banking services in remote and difficult areas.Jaitley stated that his Ministry would sanction and release the required funds under the AIBP and the MGNREGS after receiving proposals from the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Rural Development, respectively.
He also assured the Chief Minister that banks would be directed to open new brick and mortar branches in all uncovered GPs. He also promised that the Centre would sanction and release compensation on account of loss incurred by CST reduction at least for one year, to begin with.