BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday expressed concerns over reduction in Centre’s share in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CCS).
Speaking at the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog at New Delhi, the CM said, “As a consequence of several policy decisions, including restructuring and closure of schemes and reduction in central share to 60 per cent or even 50 per cent, the overall grants for major schemes under CSS decreased from Rs 10,826 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 8,502 crore in 2016-17.”
The CM noted that the drop in grants is from 10 per cent of the overall revenue receipts in 2014-15 to 6 per cent in 2016-17. “Since most of this reduction has been in essential schemes, the state has had to make up the shortfall from its own resources. For instance, under UIDSSMT (Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns) and JnNURM (for small cities), the central share was 80 per cent. Now under the rechristened Smart City and Amrut schemes, the central share has been revised to 50 per cent.”
The CM said the sudden closure of CSS schemes, such as JnNURM and RAY (Rajiv Awas Yojana) creates severe fiscal stress on the state Budget. The abrupt closure of JnNURM in March 2015 compelled the state to utilise Rs 972.68 crore from its own resources. The closure of RAY obliged the state to provide Rs 128.08 crore from its resources to complete the project.