Union Budget: Odisha seeks special package

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Saturday raised objection to discontinuance of central assistance for a number of schemes.
Finance minister Pradip Amat, who attended the Union pre-budget consultation meeting chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi, demanded a special package to compensate the loss suffered by the state for continuing the schemes.
"Stoppage of schemes like special plan for Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK), Backward Regions Grant Fund and Integrated Action Plan for Left-wing extremism affected districts will affect the development of the most vulnerable and backward regions of the state," said Amat.
The state also reiterated its demand for allowing the mineral-bearing states to levy green tax on the lessees apart from the mining royalty. Amat also urged the Centre to levy additional tax on tobacco and tobacco products.
Odisha demands green tax because according to provisions of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), mineral-bearing states would not get much revenue, he said. As destination principle will be applied under GST norms, the consuming states/manufacturing states (where the raw material will be utilized) will get the tax benefits, he added.
The state government also demanded expediting introduction of GST to accelerate the economic growth.
Amat urged the Centre to compensate the state for the central sales tax (CST) loss. As the Centre proposed to introduce GST, it brought down the CST rate from 4 to 3% in April 2007 and further reduced it to 2% in June 2008.
From 2011-12 to 2013-14, the state had claimed 2,834.43 crore against which compensation of 287.41 crore only has been received, Amat said.
He demanded adequate budget allocations for construction of five medical colleges in the state. The Centre has committed 945 crore for construction of the colleges and of the amount it has released only 55 crore, he added.
Odisha also demanded extension of Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor to Visakhapatnam so that the Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor can also be linked with Kolkata.
The finance minister said industrial towns like Dhamra, Gopalpur and Paradip should be connected to industrial hubs of northern and central regions of the country through a dedicated freight corridor.
To attract private investors to put up ancillary and downstream industries for the petroleum chemical and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR) at Paradip, the state government urged the Centre to boost infrastructure in the region.