Bhubaneswar: With the extension of tenure of 15th Finance Commission by another year, the state government is all set to submit a revised proposal to the panel soon.
The NK Singh-headed Finance Commission will now present the final report covering financial years 2021-22 to 2025-26 (April-March). Prior to that, it will submit an interim report for distribution of funds for the financial year 2020-21. Therefore, the panel has sought revised proposal from the state government by March.
In this backdrop, the state government has started preparing a revised proposal seeking funds from the Centre during the next six years.
“We have already submitted a report to Finance Commission for requirement of funds for five years. If they seek information for extended period, we will provide it to them,” said state Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari here, Saturday.
Finance Secretary AK Meena said, “We have received a letter from the Commission. We are examining what new things can be added in the proposal and accordingly, a revised proposal will be submitted to the panel.”
According to sources, the state government, in its fresh proposal will seek funds for the development Jagannath, Lingaraj and Konark temples. It will also demand at least Rs 2,000 crore for disaster management and revision of funding pattern of Central schemes.
In January 2019, a team of the FC had visited Odisha and held discussions with various stakeholders and state government officials. In its memorandum submitted to the Commission, the state had demanded about Rs 8.24 lakh crore for the period.
The state urged the panel to modify the sharing pattern of SDRF between the Centre and the state, official sources said.
The Odisha government had also demanded an increase in the share of states in net taxes to 50 per cent from the current 42 per cent, ‘special category’ status for the state and extension of GST compensation for another 10 years.
The state had been demanding that cess and surcharges be made part of divisible pool and 1971 population be used as a criterion for tax devolution. But, the Commission has taken population of Census 2011. As a result, the state government is going to lose huge amount of Central funding, the source said.