By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 9, 2016 : Odisha has registered 29.78% growth over the last fiscal by spending 60% of the allocations made for priority sectors under the state plan during 2015-16 financial year by the end of January.

At the same time, the revenue collection has also shown a growth of about 21% by the end of January compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.

This was revealed in a meeting of department secretaries under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi here on Tuesday.

The state’s revenue collection from own tax sources up to January increased to Rs.17,081 crore, which is 22 % more than that in previous year while revenue from non-tax sources touched Rs.6,046 crore, around 18% more than last fiscal’s figures.

Expressing his satisfaction over the performance in expenditure, the Padhi advised secretaries of various departments to keep up the pace of expenditure and avoid usual rush in spending in March.

The departments were advised to focus on collection of revenue arrear through one-time settlements with central public sector undertakings and private sector industries instead of spending time and energy in litigation, said an official release.

The chief secretary also directed the departments to scale up service delivery at the ground level. He reminded the secretaries of their mandatory district visits regularly to improve quality of service delivery and for ground-level feedback for policy-making.

The state plan expenditure in agriculture and allied sectors up to January 2016 was Rs.5,850 crore, around 61% of the budget estimate. The expenditure in this sector is 4.49% more than the last fiscal.

The expenditure in infrastructure sector was Rs.7,749 crore, which is 61% of the budget. The last year’s expenditure in this sector was around 51.28 % by this time, the release added.

Spending in the social sector has been pegged at Rs.13,186 crore, which is 62% of the budget. Last year’s expenditure in this sector by the end of January was around 55% of the budget estimate.