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Tuesday, February 09, 2016

FM urges states to step up social, infra spending: Reports



According to media reports, the country’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called on state governments to bolster spending on key development areas such as infrastructure and poverty alleviation schemes. Jaitley said that with the 14th Finance Commission allocating higher funds to states, their development spending is expected to go up. The 14th Finance Commission had in 2015 recommended a record 10 per cent rise in the states’ share in the centre’s taxes to 42 per cent, a recommendation that has been accepted by the union government. “We expect that those states whose resources have been increased after the implementation of the 14th Finance Commission will spend further on infrastructure creation and anti-poverty programmes since their income have increased considerably”, Jaitley said, the PTI reported. Jaitley said that many states had asked him for higher allocation of funds in the upcoming Union Budget, during their pre-budget meeting with the Finance Minister, as they seek to implement Pay Commission recommendations and those under the centrally-sponsored schemes. “The states have discussed their own resources and each one of them is competing for higher resources, higher investment and they are all geared up to fight this environment of global slowdown so that India remains an economy which is on the move,” he said, the PTI added.