Centrally sponsored schemes list to be cut to 30 from 72: NITI sub-panel

NEW DELHI: The number of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) may be pruned to 30 from the current 72 after a panel of chief ministers which is part of the NITI Aayog’s sub group on the issue appeared to have hammered out a consensus.
“There is a broad consensus on reducing number of CSS and having two types of schemes,” panel's convenor Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said after the meeting of the sub-group here at NITI Aayog.
The issue of reducing the number of centrally sponsored schemes has assumed significance against the backdrop of the award of the 14th Finance Commission which has raised the transfer of taxes to states from 32% to 42%.
“Some more suggestions have come. I have formed a committee of NITI Aayog officials headed by its CEO. It will deliberate...prepare a final draft by July 5. After seeking all chief ministers consent on the draft, the final recommendations will be submitted to the Prime Minister,” said Chouhan.
The amount of funds in each CSS which states can spend on their discretion within the overall parameters of the main scheme, known as 'flexi-funds', has also been proposed to be raised to 25% from 10%.
The panel has met several times and last met in Bhopal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the setting up of the sub-group in February to study the 66 centrally sponsored schemes and recommend which to continue, which to transfer to states and which to cut down. Some states still want the Centre to share a greater burden of the centrally sponsored schemes.
A report prepared by the NITI Aayog for the panel was dicussued in the meeting attended by chief ministers from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh and others.
The report said that CSS should be divided into two groups—core schemes and optional schemes. The core schemes would include legislatively backed schemes such as MGNREGA, Swachh Bharat, poverty elimination and social inclusion schemes, national drinking water programme, rural connectivity including electrification, access roads and communication, health, nutrition, women and children, housing for all, rural and urban transformation and law and order and justice delivery system, agriculture including animal husbandry, fisheries and irrigation. The final list is likely to be drawn up later as the list would be decided by the Centre.
It said that based on this principle, the current CSS will be turned into an umbrella programme/scheme with a maximum number of 30. In each of the identified core schemes, the Centre may implement one umbrella programme with a large number of components.
The funding pattern of core CSS should be 60% Centre and 40% states and those for optional schemes Centre share should be 50% and states 50%. But for schemes where the Centre’s share is below 50% it should remain at the same level.
The report said that for all projects under the CSS where 30% of the work has been completed funding should be continued. The sharing pattern under which the programme was approved should also continue till March 2017. If the projects still remain unfinished after that then state would have to complete them using their own funds.
A committee on restructuring of CSS, headed by the then Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi during the UPA regime, had suggested that flexi-funds should be fixed at 10% for flagship schemes and 20% for non-flagship schemes. The panel had called for slashing the total number of CSS to 59, including nine flagship schemes from the then existing 147. The final agreed number was around 66.