Hyderabad: With just two days to go for presentation of the Union Budget-2017-18 by finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Centre appears to have told States that there will be no budgetary allocations for State-specific programmes, and that it will have only sector-wise allocations.
This means that apart from the 42 per cent statutory devolution of Central funds to States, additional funds will be provided to States that show better performance under various sectors.
This also means that neither Telangana nor Andhra Pradesh will get any funds in the Budget for State-specific projects such as Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha and Amaravati capital city development as sought by the respective State governments; funds will be provided under specific ministries as and when States submit specific pr-oposals, and that too will be based on performance.
Sources said that like in the 2016-17 Budget, the new Budget too will see several changes like dispensing with the age-old practice of plan and non-plan expenditure.
For example, the Centre got Rs 58,000 crore through the clean energy cess, but States could spend only around Rs 25,000 crore, leaving a huge amount with the Centre. This was because a number of States could not come up with specific projects under this programme or could not spend the amounts for this purpose.
As far as the 42 per cent devolution of funds to States is concerned, the Centre has been releasing the entire amount, and States are given freedom to spend these amounts according to their priorities without any restrictions imposed by the Centre, the sources said.
But as far as other specific projects are concerned, the Centre has indicated to States that it will not consider the proposals at the Budget level; they can be addressed at the respective Union ministry and that too based on the performance of the States in those sectors.
Similar is the case of various proposals for railway projects by the State governments. An en bloc amount will be made available with the railway ministry this time and States need to approach the ministry to get assistance for State projects.
State finance minister Etela Rajender confirmed these new developments. “There are going to be a lot of changes. We were told that the Centre will fund to any extent if States perform as per the parameters. We will have to watch the exact chang-es in the Budget once it is presented and then only we can form our opinion.”
AP Planning Board Vice-Chairman C Kutumba Rao said there is no funds constraint for States as long as they perform. “More strict guidelines are expected in the Budget,” he added.
