Our Correspondent
Kohima | March 28
Chief Minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu today told the floor of the House that there have been significant structural changes in the finances of the state and in the state’s budget itself, consequent upon the implementation of the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations with effect from the year 2015-16, and the replacement of the Planning Commission by NITI Aayog.
In the past, a substantial portion of our budget used to come under “Plan” head, which essentially consisted of plan assistance from the Government of India through the Planning Commission, given in the form of Normal Plan Assistance (NPA), Special Plan Assistance (SPA) and Additional Central Assistance (ACA) etc. Now, such plan assistances are no more available, and we have to depend on our own resources for many of our state’s specific developmental works, said Dr. Liezietsu in his budget speech.
He said the stand taken by the central government on this issue is that, as per the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission, the devolution of shareable central taxes to the states have increased by 10% and therefore, the states now have enough resources to undertake their own state-specific development schemes.
“However, the story is quite different in the case of Nagaland and some other special category states. Inspite of the 10% increase in our share of central taxes, we are still hugely in revenue deficit. That is why the 14th Finance Commission gave us substantial amounts in revenue deficit grants. But this deficit grant is just to cover the current revenue deficits; and there is no component for development works in it,” he said.
