Question : UTILISATION OF TH FINANCE COMMISSION GRANTS

(a) the details of grants released/utilized programme-wise for the eleven Special Category States, State-wise;

(b) whether the grants have lapsed in respect of these States by 31st March 2015, if so, the details thereof, State-wise and the reaction of the Government thereon;

(c) whether the Government has received any representation from State Governments for release of funds under the States Annual Plan as per the 13th Finance Commission Report; and

(d) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a): The Sector-wise and State-wise details of grants allocated and released to the eleven Special Category States during the award period (2010-15) of Thirteenth Finance Commission (FC-XIII) are given in the Annexure. Grants recommended by a Finance Commission are required to be utilized for the specific purposes for which these have been recommended. The utilization of grants recommended by FC-XIII was monitored by High Level Committee headed by the Chief Secretary of each State. Grants released are subject to audit.

(b): Since the award period of Thirteenth Finance Commission (FC-XIII) was from 2010-11 to 2014-15, the grants recommended by it have been released to respective State Governments upto 31.03.2015, subject to fulfillment of conditionalities laid down by FC-XIII and the guidelines issued by the Government of India in this regard.

(c) and (d): FC-XIII made recommendations and outlined the principles which should govern the grants-in-aid (Non-Plan grants) of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India and no recommendation was made for release of funds under the States Annual Plans. The representations received from states for release of these grants were processed within the ambit of recommendations fo the FC-XIII during its award period.