69th NEC plenary session: Tripura CM pitches hard for change in funding patterns
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb attended the 69th plenary session of North Eastern Council (NEC) at Shillong on Saturday and made a strong pitch for changing funding pattern for NEC Budget, Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and Externally Aided Projects (EAP). The plenary session was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. All the Chief Ministers of North Eastern States except Assam and Mizoram attended the session.
Speaking at the NEC session today, Biplab Kumar Deb, apart from changing funding pattern, also demanded NEC recommendations for 7 projects out of 10 Priority list. Three had got the NEC recommendations earlier. Deb also demanded sanction of 19 roads for 298.55 Km length with approximate cost of Rs. 1194.20 crore under North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS) during 2020-2025 as proposed by the NEC.
On changing funding pattern, Deb said, presently 60 percent of the NEC budget is distributed among the 8 NE states and the remaining 40 percent budget is set aside for the Central component for Central Ministries and agencies for taking up regional projects. He demanded distribution of 90 percent NEC Budget among the NE states and the remaining 10 percent budget may be retained by NEC.
Deb also pointed out Tripura faces fund constraints to collect 10 per cent State share in implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and schemes under Central Assistance to State Plan (CASP), with 90:10 funding pattern. As a result, he mentioned, many programmes under CSS do not get implemented, resulting in not only the state losing out, but also the Central Ministries not being able to spend the required 10 percent of their budgets for the NE Region. In this context, he demanded 100 percent grant of NEC funding for schemes/projects of NE states.
For EAPs, Tripura is facing similar problems as States have to contribute 20 per cent of project cost against 80 per cent loans.
Referring to 66th NEC plenary session, Deb said the normative allocation of NEC Budget among NE states was approved in that session and it was decided that 12 percent of allocation would be made to Tripura as per a formula based on various development indices like the geographical condition, population and human index, etc.. But, as the releases made during the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), the share of Tripura over these years stood only 5.71 percent. In this context, Deb requested to adhere for providing 12 percent share to Tripura.
Besides, Deb also raised the raised the issue of revenue gap and said, most of NE states have a revenue deficit. The Finance Commission recommends revenue gap grants in addition to normal devolution. It has been seen that there is an additional gap in shortfall in normal devolution to the tune of Rs.2636.00 crore in share of central taxes in 2020-21 because of short collection of GST, etc.”
In his speech, Deb also highlighted an overview of achievements of his government and further plans for the state's growth.