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| Jugal Kishore Mahapatra |
Bhubaneswar, Nov. 28: A delegation of the 14th Finance Commission, headed by its chairman Y.V. Reddy, is coming to the state on a two-day visit beginning from December 9.
During their visit, the commission members will meet chief minister Naveen Patnaik and discuss about the state’s current financial status.
Chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said: “During the commission’s visit, we will submit a memorandum to them.We are hopeful that we would get more funds from the commission.”
Sources said the state government was planning to seek an advance of Rs 1 lakh crore from the finance commission. “We will not reveal the detail. You should wait till we submit the memorandum,” said finance minister Prasannna Acharya.
While the 13th Finance Commission had awarded Rs 78,974 crore to the state for the five-year period (2010-15), its predecessor had given Rs 36,949 crore for the previous five years.
Though total financial devolution to Odisha was higher in 13th Finance Commission in comparison to its predecessor, the percentage was lower. While the state had got 4.89 per cent of the total devolution from 12th Finance Commission, it came down to 4.6 per cent during the 13th Finance Commission. “We are hopeful that things would be different this time,” said an official.
The state government has evolved a formula to get higher allocation of central devolution during the Finance Commission-awarded period. “In the memorandum, we have put focus on infrastructure development, taking a number of projects and meeting the non-plan expenditure. We have also sought more funds under the State Disaster Response Fund,” said an official.
The state government is hopeful that Odisha will get more funds as it has been able to maintain fiscal discipline and meet the parameters for the fiscal responsibility and budget management.
“The overdraft is no more an issue in the state. Because of its fiscal discipline, it has been able to achieve higher rate of growth,” he said.
Sources said the state government also asked for more funds for local self-government bodies.
