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Bhubaneswar, Jan 8: With uncertainty still lingering over the proposed Posco project in the state, the Union minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, Friday said the Centre would extend all support for execution of the project.
“We are ready to extend all our support for execution of all big FDI projects, including Posco, in the country. However, the companies concerned have to satisfy all our existing norms,” said Sinha to journalists.
On the reduction of Central shares in Centrally Sponsored Schemes, he said the Centre has raised the devolution pool for states to 42 per cent from 32 per cent as per the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations and that states have been given more freedom in using funds.
“We have gone to all states on what is the net impact of this change… The Centre has formed a group of CMs to discuss this issue,” Sinha said. He lauded the state government’s fiscal management as “a remarkable job”.
Orissa, he said, would get many benefits from Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra Yojana and Jan Suraksha Yojana with the opening of more banks and ATMs.
Commenting on the GST bill, he said BJD supports the bill and the NDA government hope to get it passed in parliament’s next session. “Congress is obstructing the GST bill in Rajya Sabha, causing harm to India’s economy. It is a big blot on Indian democracy,” he said.
Sinha, who met CM Naveen Patnaik and finance minister Pradip Amat, said: “We reviewed Orissa’s financial position, growth and economy. We discussed issued related to accelerated irrigation programme, funding to medical colleges, the important pipelines infrastructure projects that are eligible for multi-lateral financing from World Bank, JICA, ADB, etc, and funding for backward districts.”
