Question : Financial Assistance to States

(a) whether the complete benefits of financial assistance provided by the Union Government to the States under various welfare schemes meant for providing facilities and assistance to the common people of the country are not reaching the intended beneficiaries and if so, the details thereof along with the names of these schemes;

(b) whether the Government has made any arrangement to ensure the accountability of officials of the concerned Departments and monitor the utilisation of funds provided to States on interest; and

(c) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF FINANCE

(SHRI ARUN JAITLEY)

(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED IN PART (A) TO (C) OF THE REPLY TO THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *404 BY SHRI VISHNU DAYAL RAM REGARDING “FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES” DUE FOR ANSWER ON FRIDAY 23.03.2018

(a): The benefits of financial assistance provided by the Union Government to the States under various welfare scheme meant for providing facilities and assistance to the common people of the country are reaching the intended beneficiaries. List of Central Sector Schemes and Centrally Sponsored Scheme are enclosed.
(b)&(c): The Central Government provides funds to the States under Finance Commission Transfers, Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), Central Sector Scheme and other grants-in-aid as per the allocation made though budgetary process.
Allocation of funds to the States under various welfare schemes by the Ministries/Departments concerned are made on the basis of approved guidelines of the schemes. The releases made to the States are governed by General Financial Rules (GFR) and availability of funds within Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) with the Central Government. Ministry/Department-wise detail is not maintained centrally in Ministry of Finance. Besides, suitable mechanism exists for independent audit of all expenditure of public money utilized towards the intended purpose. Further, C&AG conducts audit of State expenditure and the audit report is placed before the State Legislature.
Further, Public Finance Management System (PFMS) is envisaged to establish an on-line financial management information and decision support system for tracking of funds released under all welfare schemes of Government of India and real time reporting of expenditure at all levels of programme implementation through treasury and bank interface.
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List of Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Central Sector Schemes