'Rajasthan govt accepted SFC's recommendations partially'

Recommendations of the fourth State Finance Commission were not accepted in toto by the Rajasthan government but only partially, a top SFC official said today.
The BJP government, however, partially accepted the fourthth SFC's recommendations and dropped many important other recommendations as per its Action Taken Report (ATR) tabled in the state Assembly on February 21, SFC Chairman B D Kalla told PTI here.
In its final report for 2010-15 submitted in the state Assembly two days ago, the SFC recommended that five per cent of net own tax revenue (excluding Entray tax and land revenue) of the state government be devolved to the local bodies for the award period ie, 2010-15.

SFC made separate allocation of funds from the government's tax and non-tax revenues, and proposal for allocation of Rs.2761.32 cr has been made for 2014-15, but the state government in its ATR has kept the proposed sum intact, Kalla said.
Instead of allocating separately from tax and non-tax revenues the state government has created a "divisible pool" by allocating 7.182 per cent from its own taxes. The amount would be spent in the raio of 75.1 per cent and 24.9 per cent between Panchayati Raj Institutions and Civic Bodies (Municipal) as recommended by the panel on the basis of 2011 census, Kalla said quoting ATR.

PRI would be allocated Rs 1,206.45 crore for 2013-14 and Rs 2,073.75 crore for 2014-15, while Civic Bodies would get allocation of Rs 325.08 crore for 2013-14, and Rs 687.57 crore for 2014-15.

Kalla said the new BJP government dropped certain important recommendations from the fourth report.
The Commission recommended that 2 per cent cess be levied on excise duty on liquor with effect from 1.4.2014 and be distributed among PRIs and ULBs on the criteria adopted by the Commission, but it was not accepted in ATR, he said.
A recommendation to set up a Corpus Fund and a Performance Grant of 20 per cent to PRIS and Civic bodies were also turned down as mentioned in ATR, the chairman assailed syaing it had no extra-burden on the state exchequer if accepted.

In addition 100 per cent of land revenue, 25 per cent of entry tax, 3 per cent of royalty on minerals, 2 per cent cesson excise duty and 10 per cent surcharge on stampduty were also recommended to be devolved to PRIs and Civic Bodies, the Chairman highlighted, saying it was not clear from ATR whether these would be accepted or not.
Another recommendations like Solar Energy based illumination of villages with state's financial support, purifier for drinking water in villages, and setting up of State Instiute of Urban Affairs for training of ward members were rejected too, Kalla who made the 320 pages report, said.

Apart from Kalla, SFC comprised of three members; Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, J P Chandelia and P L Agarwal by the previous Congress government. The Commission has submitted two interim reports in July 2011, and September 2012, and submitted its final report to the Governor on September 26, 2013.