BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2011 was on Tuesday passed in the Assembly as per the recommendation of the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC). “The amendment of Orissa Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2005, was a precondition for all state-specific grants and loan relief measures and compliance of the TFC recommendations will benefit the State by `2,163.90 crore,” Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei told the Assembly. Ghadei said Odisha would get an assistance of `1,745 crore as state-specific need grants and interest relief on National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) loan amounting to ` 212.90 crore and loan waiver to the tune of ` 206 crore sanctioned by different ministries other than the Ministry of Finance during the next four years. The other objective of FRBM (Amendment) Bill, 2011 introduced during the Monsoon Session is to bring down the revenue deficit to zero, contain fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of the estimated gross state domestic product (GSDP) for each financial year and to limit the debt-GSDP ratio as prescribed by the Finance Commission, he said. If the revenue and fiscal deficit exceeds the prescribed limit, the Government will place a statement before the legislature indicating the reason for such deviations, the Minister said. As per the amended Act, the Government will issue appropriate guidelines from time to time to departments to ensure timely expenditure of budgetary grants. Government departments are required to utilise 15 per cent each of the budgetary grants in the first and second quarters, 30 per cent in the third quarter and the remaining 40 per cent in the last quarter. Now the Government will put in place a mechanism for independent period review of different fiscal indicators prescribed by the Finance Commission, the Minister said. The TFC recommended that revenue deficit will have to be maintained at zero percent from 2011-12 and the gross fiscal deficit will have to be contained at 3 pc.According to the TFC, the debt-GSDP ratio should be 30.6 per cent in 2011-12, 30.2 per cent in 2012-13, 29.8 percent in 2013-14 and 29.5 per cent in 2014-15. The Bill was passed in the absence of the Opposition which staged a walk-out demanding a reply from the Agriculture Minister on the questioned raised by former minister Damodar Rout about the alleged irregularities in the procurement of moong seeds.
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