State Finance Department team attended first consultative workshop for north east and Himalayan region states organised by the 15th Finance Commission (FC) on Thursday at New Delhi wherein the team highlighted the problems faced by Nagaland state and requested the commission to address it.
A press release by the department informed that a team of officers comprising of secretary (finance & budget), Y. Kikheto Sema; joint secretary (FRC), Kekhwezo Kepfo and deputy secretary (budget), Ketoulhou Metha, attended the workshop.
In his introductory speech, secretary, fifteenth finance commission, Arvind Metha, stated that the commission was aware of the various problems faced by the hilly states.
He stressed that since there was only about one and half years left till the Fifteenth Finance Commission becomes effective in 2020-21, there was much work to be done.
Arvind directed all the states present to prepare a memorandum which will highlight genuine and credible estimates supported by accurate data and requirements on a need base without making “abnormal demands”.
He also said that the states should prepare good notes in support of the estimates to make the Commission become better acquainted with the problems faced.
While addressing the meeting, Y. Kikheto Sema, stated that the Commission will be more aware of problems faced by the hill states, particularly North East states and Nagaland in particular.
Stating that Nagaland was perhaps the only state to have been created out of a “political exigency”, Kikheto mentioned that there have been talks for nearly 70 years now and now there was a note of positivity towards a probable solution to the talks. However, on the financial stage, Kikheto said that the 9th Finance Commission “went against the provision of the 16 point agreement and changed the funding pattern to the state”.
Over and against this, he said the Thirteenth Finance Commission was one of the “most unfavourable” to the State of Nagaland, due to the normative approach that the 13th FC took towards the State.
He said the Fourteenth Finance Commission took a “more favourable approach as it was more realistic, as a result of which the State has been able to hold its head above the water inspite of the huge bag and baggage carried over from the 13th FC in the form of deficit”. However, since the deficit was not covered by the 14th FC, Kikheto said the development works have not been able to be taken up in the state.
The secretary finance said 10% devolution under the 14th finance commission did not have much impact on smaller states like Nagaland since projects such as SPA, NCA, etc. under erstwhile planning commission was discontinued, leaving the state with 40 incomplete SPA projects with pending liabilities of Rs. 836 crores, with litigations from the court due to non-payment of bills to contractors.
Kikheto pointed out that the state has been requesting the government of India to consider this grant, as the NITI Aayog had also cleared it. However, he said a regret letter was received on December 16, 2017 and requested that the 15th FC to consider this problem faced by Nagaland.
While commenting on the special category states, Kikheto stated that there were only three special category states – Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and hill districts of Assam. However there are now 11 special category states (nearly 33% of the total states in India) and Bihar and Orissa are also seeking for the status.
While stating that Nagaland has no objection towards the government considering states for special category, he re-iterated that Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh should be considered special out of special category states due to the geo-political issues prevailing in these states.
The release informed that that the current workshop was the first consultative workshop for North East and Himalayan Region states, which gave the Commission an opportunity to address the problems faced by the states and gain from the experience insights from the state for timely completion of the preparatory exercise.
All the states in attendance were able to highlight the problems encountered by respective states and the expectations from the fifteenth finance commission.