Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, May 3: The state government has sought `3,000 crore from the funds allocated to NITI Aayog to continue the on-going Plan programmes in the state.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recently urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide the funds for the programme, sources said.
Patnaik has also urged the Prime Minister to allow central assistance for Area Specified Development (ASD) plans. These include the special plan for KBK, the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Integrated Action Plan (IAP), which are being implemented in the state for the development of backward areas.
The Centre has gone with the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) and agreed to increase the devolution of central taxes from 32 per cent to 42 per cent to ensure that the states have more resources and to give them greater autonomy in formulating schemes in accordance with local needs.
However, with the formation of NITI Aayog, it also decided to delink eight major schemes from central assistance and changed the central sharing pattern of 33 centrally sponsored schemes. The funding patterns on these 33 schemes have remained unclear as yet. The Centre is likely to reduce the quantum of central assistance for the state’s annual plan 2015-16.
As a result of the reduction in central assistance, the state government is projecting a loss of `8,037 crore.
After the 10 per cent increase in devolution, which would be around `5,888 crore,
the state government will still bear an additional liability of `2,150 crore in the
2015-16 fiscal.
Besides, though the state government would also have to use its own resources for sector-specific and state-specific interventions made by the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC), the Chief Minister has said that the no revenue deficit grant has been recommended by the commission for the state.
The Chief Minister has also pointed out the issue of special assistance to some of eastern states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Bihar, while the case of Orissa has not been taken into consideration for such assistance.
