Bhubaneswar: All eyes will be on Odisha government’s revised demands in terms of allocation from the Fifteenth Finance Commission, whose term was extended by the Centre last year.
Earlier, Odisha had submitted a memorandum to the Commission pegging its financial requirement at Rs 8.24 lakh crore for the period 2020-25 and also demanded Rs 1,500 crore (over the regular grants on disaster response) for mitigating and strengthening disaster preparedness and Rs 200 crore for development of the Jagannath Temple in Puri.
After the extension of the term, the Commission will now submit two reports - first report for financial year 2020-21 and a final report for an extended period 2021-22 to 2025 -26. In view of this, the Commission has asked the State governments including Odisha to submit their revised memorandum by March 31, 2020.
“We have already submitted our report for 5 years and will submit whatever revision is required,” said Odisha Finance Minister, Niranjan Pujari.
Finance Secretary, AK Meena said, “We have received a notification and steps will be taken for submitting a revised proposal.”
As per reports, apart from inclusion in the industrial corridor, coal royalty revision, & grants for various programmes including health, drinking water, irrigation, Odisha might seek additional funds for KBK and Scheduled Areas.
It is also more likely that the State may demand further devolution of central taxes and duties from 42% to 50% and may give more emphasis to health, education and development of infrastructure.
Sources said several key aspects including development of Puri, Konark and Lingaraj will be taken into consideration by Odisha during submission of its revised memorandum. Experts believe that the State will seek more funds towards effective tackling of natural disasters and development of infrastructure.
“As State is not getting necessary Central assistance under various schemes, government may submit a request with an enhanced budget to meet its requirements,” said Rajiv Sahu, Charted Accountant.
“A lot of funds will be required for developing Puri, Konark and other projects in Odisha. Hence, Odisha will submit its proposals accordingly,” said former finance minister, Prafulla Ghadei.
Though Commission has benchmarked the 2011 census figures as basis for distribution of funds, Odisha had suggested that the 1971 population should be used as devolution criteria.
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