New Delhi: The government has given more fiscal and legislative space to states and is fully committed to the principle of co-operative federalism, finance secretary Ratan Watal has said.
Mr Watal said that the focus of the present government is unique in the sense as it allows more fiscal and legislative space to the states. Talking about the fiscal aspect, the finance secretary said that the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) award has significantly raised the level of devolution of divisible resources to the states. He pointed-out that under the 13th Finance Commission, only 32 per cent of these resources were going to the states while the FFC recommended a huge increase of 10 per cent, bringing the figure to 42 per cent.
The FFC recommendation was accepted by the Modi government. Mr Watal said that this has changed the planning exercise and the Centre’s interaction with the states for the better.
As per its commitment in the last Budget, the finance ministry had made a provision of Rs 5.24 lakh crore under devolution of taxes to states as compared to the allocation of Rs 3.38 lakh crore in 2014-15(RE).
