Orissa debt burden touches an all time high

Bhubaneswar, Jan 24 (UNI) Orissa's debt-GSDP ratio has reached an all time high of 59 per cent while the debt burden of each individual has gone up to Rs.9425 crores, according to Population Council research Fellow Sarit Rout.

In his paper on Debt Scenario in Orissa presented at a workshop here, Mr Rout said identification of new sources of revenue was the need of the hour to help the state get out of the trap of incurring debts to meet the day-to-day expenditure of the state, and allocate greater resources for social development.

Other experts who attended the workshop however, opined that Orissa could generate additional revenue of more than 3500 crore with a little effort.

A majority of them agreed that the state has vast grounds unexplored in terms of generating additional revenue and felt that a simple revision of royalty rates in kendu leaf, sal seed, timber, firewood and bamboo by 10.20 per cent would help the state garner an additional Rs 10 crore annually.

Former Parliament member Trilochan Kanungo pointed out that the state was losing Rs 1500 crore per annum on account of discriminatory royalty and price fixation by the centre.

He expressed concern that despite increasing trends in the production and mineral value, employment has gone down in the last 15 years. He insisted that the state should pay more attention to the issue of employment citing VAT as a strong source of revenue.

Former Minister of State for Finance Panchanan Kanungo claimed that proper implementation of VAT could alone would provide an additional revenue of Rs 2000 crore to the state.

Another Speaker Dr.Bhagbat Patra said Orissa should revert to tender cum auction system while granting liquor shop licenses. The license fee which was quite low should be properly evaluated and fixed by the independent agencies fo augmentation of revenue excise.

He favoured imposition of more excise duty on foreign liquor and a complete ban of country liquor.

UNI