New Delhi: Terming it as "historic", Health Minister JP Nadda on Wednesday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accepting the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission and said long pending demands of states have been met through this decision.
"The decision to accept recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission is historic as long pending demands of the states have been met through this decision. The Prime Minister has himself held wide ranging consultations with the chief ministers of several states in the past few months.
"The acceptance of the recommendations of 14th Finance Commission is the culmination of these efforts which would have a long last ng positive impact on the states' finances," Nadda said.
The Health Minister said that by accepting the recommendations of 14th Finance Commission, the Government has shown its "firm" commitment to strengthen the states and work towards strengthening cooperative federalism in both letter and spirit.
"This marks a major milestone in realising Prime Minister's vision of Team India, where Centre and states join hands as equal stakeholders for nation building," he said. Noting that Himachal Pradesh has benefitted significantly from the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, Nadda said the acceptance of these recommendations will go a long way in improving the financial health of fiscally stressed states like Himachal Pradesh.
"In view of increase in central devolution of taxes from 32 per cent to 42 per cent, the devolution to Himachal Pradesh has increased from Rs 11,328 crores in period of the 13th Finance Commission to Rs 28,000 crores during the period of the 14th Finance Commission," he said.
He said that significant increase in the allocation of revenue deficit grant has been approved in the 14th Finance Commission resulting the increase of share of revenue deficit grant in the state from Rs 7,889 crores to Rs 40,000 crores over a period of five years.
He further stated that grants to the local bodies in Himachal Pradesh have been raised from Rs 640 crores to Rs 1,628 crores and grants for disaster preparedness have been increased from Rs 670 crores to Rs 1,173 crores. The Health Minister also congratulated the Finance Commission for including forest cover as one of the weightage point for devolution of Central grants to the extent of 7.5 per cent.
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