Nagaland gets INR 100 crore; state-wise distribution of fund under newly-announced scheme

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Dec. 12 (EMN): An amount of INR 100 crore has been released to Nagaland under ‘Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure’.

The scheme was announced by the Union Finance Minister on October 12 as part of the Aatma Nibhar Bharat package.

A total of INR 200 crore has been approved and allocated for Nagaland out of which INR 100 crore has been released, according to a PIB update.

The capital expenditure projects have been approved in diverse sectors of economy like health, rural development, water supply, irrigation, power, transport, education, and urban development.

All 27 states, except Tamil Nadu, have availed the benefit under the newly-announced scheme.

Finance ministry has approved capital expenditure projects worth INR 9,879.61 crore and an amount of INR 4,939.81crore has been released to the states as first instalment.

The scheme is aimed at boosting capital expenditure by state governments that are facing difficult financial environment this year due to the shortfall in tax revenue arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, it reported.

Capital expenditure has a higher multiplier effect, enhancing the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economy growth. Therefore, despite the adverse financial position of the central government, it was decided to extend a special assistance to the state governments in respect of capital expenditure in financial year 2020-21, according to the report.

The scheme has three parts: part I covers the north-eastern region and an amount of INR 200 crore each has been allocated to seven Northeast states (Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizaoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura), while Assam has been allocated INR 450 crore under the scheme in view of higher population and geographical area; part II is for all other states not included in part I, under which INR 7,500 crore has been allocated to states in proportion to their share of central tax as per the interim award of the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2020-21; part III is aimed at pushing various citizen-centric reforms in the states, and under this part, INR 2,000 crore has been earmarked, which will be available only to those states that carry out at least three out of the four reforms specified by the Finance ministry in its letter on May 17,2020, regarding reform-linked additional borrowing permissions.

The four reforms include: one nation one ration card, ease of doing business reform, urban local body/utility reform and Power sector reform.

Here is state-wise allocation, approval granted and funds released: