Bhubaneswar: The state government Monday admitted before the Assembly that it has failed to utilise around 64 per cent of the funds allocated for different departments.
In a written statement as furnished before the House, the Finance Minister, Niranjan Pujari, told the Assembly that altogether the state had a budget estimate of Rs 1,46,061.09 crore. However, by the end of September this year the state was able to utilise only 36 per cent of the total allocation (Rs 53265.81 crore), while the remaining 64 per cent of the funds still remain unutilised.
The finance minister was replying to a question posed by BJD MLA Bhupinder Singh regarding utilisation of budgetary allocation for each department and the number of review meetings conducted by the state to ensure smooth release of the funds.
Pujari in his written reply to the House said that during the current financial year the total expenditure incurred by different departments by the end of September 2019 stood at Rs 53265.81 crore by the end of September 2019. He also said that the state government has been taking special steps to ensure that review of the expenditure is discussed.
The finance minister also said that the department is making monthly review of expenditure at all-secretaries meetings. He also said that quarterly monitoring of expenditure of 20 major departments is covered under Cash Management System. According to Pujari, monitoring of completion of projects identified under Zero Based Investment Review is also held regularly.
The minister said that in the current financial year the monthly review expenditure at all-secretaries meeting have been conducted four times in the months of April, June, September and October.
Some of the departments which witnessed the lowest spending till September included Science and Technology department with more than 77 per cent unspent funds, Odia Language, Literature and Culture department which could utilize merely 24 per cent, electronics and information technology department with an utilisation of only 1.5 per cent.