(a) whether the Union Government are releasing grants-in-aid to States,
Union Territories and other statutory bodies and non-government
institutions;
(b) if so, whether the statutory bodies and non-government bodies are
required to submit the certificates of utilisation of grants; but many
of them are not submitting the same and yet the grants are released to
them; and
(c) if so, the reasons therefor with the corrective steps taken by the
Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI BALASAHEB VIKHE PATIL)
(a) to (c): As per the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance
Commission (EFC), grants-in-aid are being released to States by the
Ministry of Finance. The EFC has recommended grants-in-aid to States to
cover the estimated deficit on non-plan revenue account for each year of
the EFC award period 2000-2005. Besides, grants for specific purposes
like upgradation and special problems, local bodies, natural calamities
and incentive grants for fiscal reforms are also being released to
States by the Ministry of Finance. As per the guidelines for utilization
of these grants, the releases are to be made subject to fulfillment of
certain conditionalities which also include submission of utilization
certificates of grants previously released. For release of non-plan
revenue deficit grants, no utilization certificates are required since
these are untied grants.