Representatives of 22 PRIs of Madhya Pradesh attend meeting with Finance Commission

The Commission was informed that all 29 functions of PRIs as envisaged in the 11th schedule of the Constitution, have been devolved to PRIs in Madhya Pradesh and the State has been releasing funds currently as per the recommendations of the 3rd State Finance Commission.

The 15th Finance Commission headed by Chairman, Shri N.K. Singh along with its Members and senior officials met today with the representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)  of Madhya Pradesh.

The Commission was informed that all 29 functions of PRIs as envisaged in the 11th schedule of the Constitution, have been devolved to PRIs in Madhya Pradesh and the State has been releasing funds currently as per the recommendations of the 3rd  State Finance Commission.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 23,177 PRIs, of which 52 are Zilla Panchayats, 313 Janpad Panchayats and 22,812 Gram Panchayats.

As per the major recommendations of the 3rd  SFC,

4 percent of the net taxes of the State should be devolved to the PRIs – this has been accepted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the amount was distributed to GPs as per Census 2011 population and minimum per capita share.

Grant of Rs. 50 crore for the maintenance of assets at the Gram Panchayats level should be provided. The allocation of this grant would be based upon the population of the Gram Panchayats – the State Govt. has decided to give maintenance grant of Rs. 50 Cr. (Rs. 10 Cr. every year during the SFC award period).

The 14th Finance Commission had recommended for the period 2015-20, a devolution of Rs. 12200.72 crores to Madhya Pradesh as Basic Grant ( 6.77 per cent of total grants) and devolution of Rs. 1355.64 crores as Performance grant ( 6.77 per cent of total grants).

The Commission has observed that:

The State has been releasing funds currently as per the recommendations of 3rd SFC.  The recommendations of the 4th SFC had not been accepted, while the submission of the report of 5th SFC  is still awaited.

The 15th FC would have to take a call on whether it would recommend grants only for Gram Panchayats out of 3 tiers of PRIs in the State - in view of the fact the 14th Finance Commission had recommended grants for only Gram Panchayats.

In 2016-17 & 2017-18, all 3 tiers of PRIs had generated zero own revenue – both own tax revenue and non-tax revenue.

Representatives of 22 PRIs of whom 5 were ladies, were present for discussions with the Finance Commission.

The Commission further noted all the concerns highlighted by the representatives of the PRIs and promised to address them in its recommendations to the Central Government.

(With Inputs from PIB)