Odisha seeks Rs 3,500 cr assistance via Niti Aayog

CM Patnaik says Odisha may suffer a net loss of Rs 2,149 cr in 2015-16 due to reduction in central assistance vis-a-vis increase in devolution

 

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sought a special assistance of Rs 3,500 crore for Odisha via the newly constituted Planning body Niti Aayog.

“I had a meeting with the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley today and I urged him to earmark a minimum of Rs 3,500 crore as special assistance for Odisha through the Niti Aayog. I also asked him to enhance central allocation under key schemes like Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan,” Patnaik told reporters in New Delhi.

 

He said, Odisha is poised to suffer a net loss of Rs 2,149 crore in 2015-16 on account of reduction in central assistance vis-a-vis increase in devolution.

Even though the share of states in the net proceeds of sharable central taxes has been increased to 42 per cent from the level of 32 per cent, the share of Odisha is 4.642 per cent of the divisible pool, down from 4.779 per cent. According to its own calculations, Odisha is set to lose Rs 4,600 crore from 2015-16 to 2019-20 owing to the revised criteria adopted by the Commission for horizontal transfer of funds.

 

The 14th Finance Commission has recommended Rs 184,070 crore as the state’s share in the net proceeds of the central taxes and duties which is 4.642 per cent of the divisible pool. Had the Commission adopted the previous criteria, the state would have been eligible to get a share of 5.35 per cent of the sharable pool amounting to Rs 2,11,228 crore.

The decrease in relative share of Odisha is due to deletion of the criterion ‘fiscal discipline’ and inclusion of a new criterion called demographic change (population as per 2011 Census). Besides, in the income distance criterion, the sharp rise in per capita income has affected the state’s share. The revised criteria has meant that share of states like Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala has increased. As per the reworked criteria, population has 17.5 per cent weightage while demographic change has 10 per cent. Income distance, area and forest cover bear weightage of 50 per cent, 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.