UPSC Articles
Special Assistance To States For Capital Expenditure Scheme
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Economy
In news
- All the states except Tamil Nadu have availed benefits of the newly announced scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure.
Key takeaways
- The scheme was announced as a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
- Aim: Boosting capital expenditure by the State Governments who are facing a difficult financial environment this year due to the shortfall in tax revenue arising from the COVID 19 pandemic.
- Capital Expenditure enhances the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth.
- The government had announced that the Centre will offer Rs. 12,000 crore special interest-free 50-year loan to states, exclusively for capital expenditure.
- Parts of the scheme: (1) Part–I of the scheme covers the north-eastern region (Rs. 200 crores); (2) Part-II is for all other States (Rs. 7500 crores); (3) Part-III of the scheme is aimed at pushing various citizen-centric reforms in the States.
- Under Part III, an amount of Rs. 2000 crores is earmarked.
- This amount will be available only to those States which carry out at least three out of the four reforms specified by the Ministry of Finance.
- Four Reforms: One nation one ration card, ease of doing business, urban local body/ utility reform and power sector reforms.
- As of now, Rs. 4,939.81 crore has been released as the first instalment out of Rs. 9,879.61 crore worth of capital expenditure proposals of 27 States.
