Expenditure review

Development needs a wider role of states

- 

The Union Ministry of Finance (MoF) is reported to have asked all government departments and ministries to rationalise centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) and central sector schemes. The idea is to merge overlapping schemes and improve efficiency in implementation. The government runs 54 CSS and about 260 central sector schemes. While the merits of individual schemes may be debatable, it is reasonable to argue that the Union government runs too many schemes, which may be affecting outcomes. Therefore, a periodic review of schemes is necessary. As announced in the 2016 Budget speech, schemes have been aligned with the Finance-Commission cycle and their continuance is based on evaluation. Given that the exercise is being undertaken now, the government, particularly the MoF, would be well advised to examine each one of them carefully.