Moa Jamir
The three-day visit of the Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman to Nagaland for the State’s first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Investment Conclave could be considered a great success for both the Union and the State Government.
On one hand, the Union can claim of bestowing undivided attention to Nagaland with the extended visit, while for the State, apart from successfully securing the Minister’s dates, it was also the amount of relative and absolute buzz it generated, within and beyond the State as well as various concrete commitments from the businesses and corporates.
One single-call by the Chief Minister has drawn various business leadership to Nagaland, the Finance Minister (FM) had highlighted throughout while noting that there was a considerable increase in the CSR commitment as well as investment interests during the conclave.
Among the commitments were the CSR Projects worth Rs 36.6 crores during the conclave, which by any account, is a significant achievement, and more than double the cumulative amount of Rs 15.21 crore Nagaland had received during the last 7 financial years from 2014-15 to 2020-21. The highest annual CSR spending in Nagaland so far, as per official data, was Rs 5.10 crore in 2019-20. There are more in the offing, the Finance Minister informed, over and above those already committed. An official in the run-up to the conclave has maintained that corporates were expected to extend CSR funding up to Rs 160 crore in Nagaland.
Apart from the CSR commitments, she launched bank branches, CM’s Micro-finance initiative, and interacted with the business community, among others.
But what was missing from the visit was any big-ticket standalone announcement from the Minister for the State. One would assume that those at the helms of affairs must have been expecting some kind of fiscal stimulus or economic package, among others, from such a high-profile visit. Such overtures, however, were not forthcoming immediately.
Instead, two key takeaways can be inferred from the visit. Firstly, the transfer of funds in terms of mandated tax devolution as well as grants-in-aid from the Union has been consistently rising over the years. Without explicitly stating so, the Minister seems to have repudiated the argument of ‘under-funding’ due to changes in the funding pattern.
The Fiance Ministry’s provision of comparative statistics of tax devolution and grants-in-aid over the years during a media interaction on August 24 was telling and seems to convey a clear message that it is incumbent upon the concerned State to put its finances in order.
On the other end, the FM also tasked the banking sectors and the State Government to promptly facilitate all eligible beneficiaries of the various schemes to avail the same and gave a time-bound outreach campaign by September 1. While the Minister had clarified that the direction was not a ‘sign that works were not happening, but rather to complete those which are incomplete,’ her commentaries on the ground status of various central schemes in the State during the three-day visit were indicative of the recognition of 'below expectation implementation' – both in pace and outreach, and most importantly, being monitored.
Accordingly, while acknowledging the ‘achievement’ of the aforesaid conclave, the State Government must take note of the implicit indicators, particularly its financial health and implementation of schemes, and undertake necessary course correction.
For any comments, drop a line to jamir.moa@gmail.com
