Bhubaneswar: As the developing nations are staring at an imminent economic slowdown in the coming days due to various reasons, Odisha seems to be doing well and can weather the slowdown on its own with systematic management of resources and robust tax collections. The mineral rich state has shown a positive development in tax collections and it is expected that the trend will continue in the coming days while the country is facing crisis.
Odisha’s revenue collections till the month of August stood at Rs 12,315 Crore against Rs 11,758 Crore during the same period of 2018. This comes to a seven percent growth in revenue collections in the first five months of the current fiscal.
According to Ashok Meena, Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of Odisha, “total revenue collections upto August grew around 7 percent over the same period of the last fiscal. While non-tax revenues increased by twelve percent, augmentation of revenue from own tax sources gone up by 5 pc.”
These indicators come at a time when the country is going through a difficult period and the economy is in downturn. GST revenue collection trends of the country indicate that growth in collections in the first five months of the fiscal has been 6.4%, well below the 10% estimated for the year. With signs of economic slowdown, India’s GST collections in the month of August too dropped to Rs 98,202 crore from Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the previous month. This is for the second time during this fiscal that the revenue collections from the GST went below the One Lakh crore mark. In June, the GST collections stood at Rs 99,939 crore.
As a mineral bearing state, a lion’s share of tax collections depend on the mining industry in Odisha. In tune with the country’s economic growth, the state’s growth is also dependant on the national conditions. If the demand subsists, then it will automatically impact the state economy. But, due to well management of fiscal operations, Odisha can keep itself out of the impact of slowdown. Earlier, Finance minister Niranjan Pujari had said the government is keeping an eye on the economic situation of the country.