Centre Nudges States To Focus On Increasing Capital Expenditure, Gives 50-yr Interest-free Loans

New Delhi: Focussing on fiscal prudence in India, expenditure secretary V Vualnam on Thursday said that the Centre has been focusing on increasing capital expenditure and nudging states to increase infrastructure spending by giving 50-year interest free loans under a scheme. “Fiscal prudence adopted by the government will act as the strong foundation in achieving India's Viksit Bharat goal,” Vualnam said at an event here.

The secretary also said that in the last few months when the external sector has been unpredictable and volatile, it has provided a very strong foundation to achieve the Viksit Bharat goal by 2047. “So fiscal prudence is something that would give us the foundation as we move forward as a country looking at Viksit Bharat,” he explained.

The government is also aiming to utilise information technology to channelise funds towards social sector schemes and subsidies. “About Rs 5 lakh crore every year is disbursed under centrally sponsored schemes to all states combined through a digitised system -- Public Financial Management System (PFMS),” he said.

“The public money that we manage is now exactly sent where it is required, to the exact beneficiary or to the exact project that it is required. So, on one hand the IT systems are helping us, but it is also a wealth of data that is generated,” Vualnam said.

The government, he said, now has a database, which includes land holding, type of crops, of about 10 crore farmers. “In fact, the government is looking at how this agri-stack can be used in the distribution of fertilisers so that it is better targeted -- how it goes to the exact farmers depending on the land that he is cultivating, depending on the crops that he is cultivating,” he added. #End#