Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today assured the Rajya Sabha that nowhere devolution of funds to States from the Centre was held up and she had personally supervised clearance of all States’ dues by February this year.

She was replying to a debate on two Appropriation Bills concerning additional expenditure made by the Government relating to financial years 2021-22 and 2018-19.

The Bills already passed by the Lok Sabha were returned by the House after her reply.

Sitharaman said the States were fully paid funds under transfer of funds to States, Finance Commission’s grants or for Centrally sponsored schemes by February so that the States could plan for the next financial year in time.

An amount of Rs 1.59 lakh crore was transferred to States every month, she said. Responding to members’ queries on cess monies, she clarified that the GST cess was under the control of the GST Council. She said all IGST dues were cleared.

As the Elders took the opportunity to raise a general discussion on the state of the economy and took up issues like unemployment, sluggish industrial growth or delays in Defence purchases, the Finance Minister gave data to show the Modi Government had done much better in the past seven years than the Congress Government in its 10-year rule.

She said the Congress Government had made nil Defence purchases during its 10-year rule, while the BJP Government’s record in the sector was overwhelming. There was no reduction in the Defence expenditure.

Sitharaman said today’s economic realities should be kept in view while talking about the reduction in the EPF rate of interest from 8.40 per cent to 8.10 per cent. Still, it was higher than any Government saving scheme or rates given by banks on fixed deposits.

She said the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA was a demand-driven scheme and as the demand goes up, the allocation also goes up. The allocation in the coming year was Rs 73,000 crore, the same as in 2021-22 when the actual expenditure was Rs 98,000 crores. There was no reduction in fertilizer subsidy.

The Finance Minister said LIC policyholders would have 10 per cent of LIC IPO offer reserved for them at a concessional rate. She said public sector insurance companies were being recapitalized on the basis of their performance.

Several members said the defence R&D had little allocation and armed forces had to manage with poor quality items of daily use like sleeping bags. Congress member Shaktisinh Gohil said the Government should study CAG observations.

Trinamul Congress member Santanu Sen said the Centre should replicate West Bengal schemes in health and other sectors. Fouzia Khan (NCP) said India must be totally “atmanirbhar” in defence.