Centre-state fund-sharing in 24 schemes to undergo change

New Delhi, Mar 10: The pattern of funds sharing between the Centre and states under 24 centrally-sponsored schemes would be amended to keep their outlays unchanged, government said on Tuesday.

"Government has decided that subsequent to the acceptance of 14th Finance Commission's recommendations in respect of certain schemes, Centre-State funds sharing pattern will have to undergo a change to keep the scheme outlay unchanged," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in Rajya Sabha.

Responding to a supplementary during Question Hour, he said 31 ongoing schemes would continue to get full support from the Centre while eight others would be de-linked.

However, the fund-sharing pattern in 24 other central schemes would undergo changes, resulting in the Centre's contribution coming down from the existing 75 per cent in these schemes.

As per the Finance Commission's recommendations, the states' share would now on be 42 per cent of the entire kitty as compared to 32 per cent previously. With higher devolution of funds, the enriched states would also have the power to adopt flexibility in relation to the schemes, Sinha said.

Government had earlier said the states were free to continue or change these schemes and programmes as per their discretion and requirement.

Replying to a question, the Minister said the government has also accepted the Commission's recommendation for grants to the tune of Rs 2 lakh crore to panchayats and Rs 87,143 crore to municipalities during the 2015-2020 period.

PTI