Bhubaneswar: To prepare for the annual budget for the financial year 2020-21, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari Wednesday held a consultation meeting with former finance ministers, financial secretaries, experts and other stakeholders. The annual budget is expected to be tabled in third week of February.
During the meeting, issues like revenue enhancement, collection of pending dues, fund flow to agriculture & infrastructure, impact of economic slowdown and timely spending of budgetary allocation were discussed broadly, sources said.
As the resources for the state budget—almost 60 per cent of it — came from Central government, the experts advised the state government to look into the impact of economic slowdown closely and try to get more funds from the Centre, the source said.
The experts also suggested the state government to control borrowing from open market. State’s overall debt stock is estimated to be around `1.06 lakh crore by end of the current financial year.
“Due to the prevailing economic slowdown situation, there are chances that the fund-flow from the Centre will be affected. The state government should keep that in mind while preparing the budget. The arrears pending with industrial houses in terms of water and electricity cess should be recovered,” said former finance minister Prafulla Ghadai after attending the meet. He said the government should also take all necessary steps to ensure timely auction of mineral blocks.
Another former finance minister Panchanan Kanungo advised the government to give focus on budget spending. “The budget estimations will be enhanced. But, the state government is not in a comfort zone to spend the allocated amount because they don’t have sufficient fund,” he said.