Funds transferred to states increased under 15th Finance Commission: Nirmala Sitharaman
New Delhi| Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired pre-budget consultations with finance ministers of states and union territories (including the Assembly) in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The participants made several suggestions to the Union Finance Minister for consideration in the Union Budget for FY 2025-26.
The Union Finance Minister said that due to healthy macroeconomic environment, acceleration and efficiency in tax collection, funds transferred to states in the last 45 months (April 2021 to December 2024) under the 15th Finance Commission are higher than funds transferred in 60 months under the 14th Finance Commission (2015-20)
The Union Minister also mentioned the Special Assistance to States Scheme for Capital Investment (SASCI), which was first announced in the Union Budget 2020-21. States are requesting the Central Government to increase funds under this scheme as it is creating significant capital assets in the states.
The Union Minister said that the Centre has allocated an additional amount of about Rs 30,000 crore as ‘untied fund’ under SASCI-2024-25. This allocation can be used by state governments to further increase expenditure on creation of capital assets in any sector. Further, the Union Finance Minister said that the Center has made an additional arrangement under SASCI for states affected by disasters of serious nature as assessed by the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
This will assist states in their efforts to rebuild damaged infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, water supply lines, power poles and culverts etc. States that have faced a natural disaster of a serious nature (assessed by IMCT) in FY 2024-25 may be eligible to get up to 50 per cent of their allocation under Part-1 (Untide) of the SASCI Scheme.
Union Minister Sitharaman said that this amount will be in addition to the funds provided under the National Disaster Response and Mitigation Fund (NDRMF).
The meeting was attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Chief Ministers of Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Odisha; Deputy Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana; Finance Minister, Ministers, Secretaries of the Departments of Economic Affairs and Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance and senior officials of the States/Union Territories and Central Government attended.
