DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 23 (MExN): The Nagaland State Finance Department today issued a clarification in response to allegations made by the ACAUT Nagaland that more than Rs 5000 Crores released by the centre is parked in the state coffers.
A press note from the Finance Department stated that information furnished by the government in response to an RTI was “misunderstood, leading to the wrong conclusion that the Government has huge funds in its coffers owing to non-utilization of funds released by the Centre.”
The department said that the centre releases funds from time to time as per the norms recommended by the Finance Commission, and the state government takes into account all the funds receivable from all sources during a particular financial year and works out the estimates of receipts for the purpose of the state budget.
The main sources of receipts of the state government, it informed, are the post devolution revenue gap grant, state’s share of central taxes, all other grants available under the award of the Finance Commission, state’s own tax & non-tax revenue, and the borrowings of the state government as permissible within the norms prescribed by the Finance Commission.
It clarified that the post devolution revenue deficit grant and grant for disaster relief have been incorporated in the State Budget for the year 2015-16 and 2016-17.
“To verify the correctness of this statement, page 2 of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Budget for the years 2015-16 and 2016-17 may be referred to. Similarly, the grants indicated for the year 2017-18 will also be incorporated in the Budget for the year 2017-18,” it added.
It further stated that while central grant against disaster relief is utilized specifically for disaster relief, the post devolution revenue deficit grant and the state’s share of central taxes, etc. are not tied to any specific programme/scheme but goes to finance the state’s expenditure as reflected in the budget of the respective year.
It concluded that “since the above mentioned receipts have been/are being utilized to meet the expenditure as reflected in the budget of the respective year, there cannot be any question of any part of these central grants remaining unutilized.”
With regard to delay in payment of salaries to SSA, RMSA, Hindi teachers etc, the department acknowledged that these are genuine concerns and are being tackled as best as possible.
It however reminded that such programmes fall under Centrally Sponsored Schemes and releases under these schemes are directly linked to the corresponding specific releases from the Centre.
“It is to be made clear that there is no logical link of these issues to the Post Devolution Revenue Gap Grant etc, of which no undistributed ‘reserve’ is kept anywhere,” it stated.
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