Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 15 held a virtual meeting with chief ministers and finance ministers of all states and union territories to discuss aspects of the economy post COVID-19. She said that the Centre will release additional devolution funds due to states on November 22 to enable them to spend more on capital expenditure.
"Many states suggested that it would be helpful for them to get a part of the tax devolution front loaded. This being an exceptional year, states will not be short of money when all of us are pushing for infrastructure," Sitharaman said after a day-long interaction with chief ministers and administrators of states on economic and infrastructure-related issues. "Hence I have asked the Finance Secretary to release an extra instalment this month. On November 22, two devolution instalments of Rs 47,541 crore will be released to states. That totals to Rs 95,082 crore," she said. Accordingly, on November 22, instead of the monthly instalment of devolution amount which is normally Rs 47,541 crore, the Centre will release another Rs 47,541 crore, amounting to Rs 95,082 crore that will be given to the states. Normally, the Centre divides the states’ 41 per cent share of revenues over 14 instalments during the year, with one instalment due this month on November 20. “With that, the desire of the states to have some more money in their hands so that they can easily consider spending it for infrastructure creation, will be met,” Sitharaman said. Between April and September this year, the capex of 20 states has shown an increase of 79 per cent over the previous year and 23 per cent over the pre-COVID levels of 2019-20. The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh, along with Lt Governors of Jammu and Kashmir, Deputy Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, and Delhi. State ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, state government officials of Ladakh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, along with Secretaries, Chief Secretaries, Finance Secretaries (Economic Affairs), Joint Secretaries (Economic Affairs) and other officials of the Centre and states also attended the meeting.
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