The State has achieved more than 26 per cent growth in own tax revenue collection by October last in comparison to the corresponding period during 2014. Similarly, the State Plan expenditure has also grown by 27 per cent during this time in comparison to the last fiscal. This was revealed in a Secretary level meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati.
Reviewing the progress of the implementation of various important decisions and directions of Government, Chief Secretary Pati directed the departments to focus on collection of arrear revenue and on line roll out of notified public services.
Pati emphasized on implementation of CCTNS. He said that CCTNS would bring a revolutionary change in crime and criminal detection and will enhance the professional efficiency of the police.
Presenting the updates of the revenue position, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) R Balakrishnan said that own tax revenue collection during 1st half of the current financial year is encouraging. There has been higher collection from stamp duty and registration fees, renewal of mining leases, land revenue, electricity duty and excise. The total collection from own tax sources by October, 2015 has been Rs 11,936.93 crore against a collection of Rs 9,463 crore in 2014 thereby recording a growth of 26.14 per cent.
Similarly, the total collection from non-tax sources has been Rs 3,728.69 crore by Ocober, 2015 with a growth of 4.09 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. The utilization of budget in infrastructure building has been to the tune of Rs 4,449 crore up to October, 2015 which is around 4 per cent higher than the last year. The utilization in social sectors like Education, Health, ST and SC Development, labor Welfare, Panchayati Raj, Women and Child Welfare, Employment Training and Technical Education has been around Rs 7,854 crore which is around 7 per cent higher than that of last year.
The Chief Secretary directed to focus on collection of arrear revenue from different sources. Departments were advised to prepare definite action plan for this.
Emphasizing on the fast delivery of public services, the Chief Secretary directed to expedite online roll out of notified public services under Odisha Public Service Act-2012. Available data shows that 89 services of different departments were earlier notified under the Act. During the current year additional 235 services have been notified making a total of 324 public services of 22 departments. The Chief Secretary directed the departments to quickly roll out the services that are easily amenable to electronics delivery. It was decided to transform all notified services to electronics form. The services will be rolled out on NIC Service+ platform. A committee was formed under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary GA with Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of respective departments, Special Secretary IT, NIC, CEO and OCAC to work out a roadmap for rolling out of the services by November 30, 2015. The Chief Secretary also asked the committee to suggest necessary actions for linking those services to Common Service Centers.