FM meets states for pre-budget talks, highlights record fund devolution since April 2021

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today held a pre-budget consultation meeting with states and union territories. The meeting held a day ahead of the GST Council meeting, saw the finance minister say the funds devolved to states in 45 months under the 15^th Finance Commission exceeded the total funds devolved during 60 months under the 14^th Finance Commission (2015-2020). The ministry said “valuable” feedback was received from the participants during the meeting.

According to the ministry, the finance minister remarked that because of the healthy macroeconomic environment, buoyancy, and efficiency in tax collections, the funds devolved to the states in the last 45 months (April 2021 to December 2024) under the 15^th Finance Commission are more than what was devolved in 60 months under the 14^th Finance Commission (2015-20).

“The participants gave several valuable suggestions to the Union Finance Minister for consideration in the budget 2025-26,” said the ministry release.

Sitharaman also referred to the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI), which was first announced in the Union Budget 2020-21, and acknowledged that it has received a very good response from the States. “The states have been requesting the Central Government to enhance the outlay under the Scheme as it is leading to the construction of crucial capital assets in the States,” the release said.

The FM stated that the centre has allocated an additional ₹30,000 crore as ‘Untied Funds’ under the SASCI-2024-25. "This allocation may be used by the state governments in any sector to further increase expenditures on the creation of capital assets," the release stated.

The meeting was attended by minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary, chief ministers of Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Odisha, and deputy chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana, in addition to central and state government officials.