Key Points
New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) The issue of granting special category status (SCS) to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh should be decided on non-political considerations by a constitutional body, RBIs monetary policy committee member Ashima Goyal said on Monday.. Goyal further said the 14th Finance Commission has already ruled on special category status states...
Bihar has also been seeking the special status since 2005 when Nitish Kumar was sworn in as its chief minister..
Responding to the debate on economically and socially better-off southern and western states subsidising the northern and eastern states, Goyal said net resource flows are part of what has kept the country together.. Directions of flows have differed in the past and will change again in the future, she said, adding that states gain much more than just resources participating in a vibrant growing common market...
According to her, data from four populous northern states Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh and four southern states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, shows since 2000, the formula-based share of taxes fell for southern states, while the share of discretionary grants from the Centre rose for them and fell for the northern states...
As a result, the share of total transfers to the southern states was constant, Goyal said.. While noting that the reason is although lower per capita income states are awarded more of Finance Commission rule-based devolution, she said more efficient states get more of conditional grants...
