NITI Aayog praises Arunachal Pradesh for prudent fiscal management

ITANAGAR: The NITI Aayog today appreciated Arunachal Pradesh as one of the best performing states in the country in terms of fiscal management.

NITI Aayog CEO Shindhushree Khullar appreciated various fiscal consolidation measures taken by the state government to maintain financial discipline in the state amidst severe monetary constraints.

Chief Minister Nabam Tuki called on NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya and CEO Khullar at Yojana Bhavan here and discussed various issue pertaining to the state budget and its share of budgetary allocations from the Center, according to an official release.

They discussed the tentative allocations for the upcoming state budget to be presented in the first week of July.

After detailed consultations, it was agreed to go for a budget of around Rs 10,200 crore for financial year 2015-16.

It was further decided that an official level consultation will be held next week under the aegis of the NITI Aayog with the Chief Secretary and other officers of the state to discuss the fiscal consolidation scenario in the state.

Vice Chairman Panagariya and CEO Khullar assured the Chief Minister of the support of the NITI Aayog to streamline major projects like the Trans Arunachal Highway, Greenfield Airport and Hydro Power projects.

The Chief Minister informed them about the issue of Arunachal Pradesh being deprived of externally-aided funding from agencies such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The Vice-Chairman assured the Chief Minister that an alternative mechanism will be devised to compensate for this loss.

He also assured that Arunachal Pradesh will gain from the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission wherein forest cover and geographical area was assigned a weightage of 7.5 per cent in devolution of funds.

Advisor, North East and Advisor, Infrastructure of the NITI Aayog were also present in the meeting, the release added.