The Centre has accepted the recommendation of a panel that fund sharing between the central and state governments for 17 core centrally sponsored schemes in north eastern states should be 90:10, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said here today.
The Shivraj Singh Chauhan Committee recommended that the sharing formula for the NE states should primarily be 90:10 as it has been and for a few other programmes it should be 80:20, Sinha told reporters here.
Although some centrally-aided schemes have been struck down by the 14th Finance Commission, it has replaced them with an unconditional devolution for which states stand to benefit, the minister said.
Stating that the total amount released under various schemes for Meghalaya was Rs 3,804 crore, Sinha said, "The allocation of 2015-16 is Rs 4,014 crore, an increase of about Rs 200 crore.
"It also increased the amount of money going to the states from the divisible pool from 32 to 42 per cent. So the states are now getting much more unconditional money than they had been getting earlier," he said.
Claiming that the Centre was quite "generous" towards NE states, he said it has also set aside Rs 2,369 crore for DoNER to fund projects across the region.
Lauding Meghalaya fiscal health, Sinha said, "I am pleased that Meghalaya is doing very well economically. The state GDP is growing 15 per cent a year, which I think is quite extraordinary. The fiscal deficit of GDP is below 30 per cent (currently 25 per cent) which we wanted it to be."
On the state's potential, he emphasised on the need to tap hydro-electric power generation and agro-processing and assured central assistance including finance of some of the projects.
Sinha also campaigned for safe passage of the GST Bill pending in Parliament. Stating that the Bill will help the financially weak NE states, Sinha said, "We are hopeful that the NE states will support the passage of GST in Parliament.
