SPECIAL STATUS or SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS...WHAT DO YOU NEED?
Special Category Status.....only word that shaking the whole country today.
Let me go through
What is special status? What is Special Category Status? How it is evolved?
When and Why it is introduced? Which States have Special Category Status ? Which Indian States asking for the special category status .......and so on......
SPECIAL STATUS:
- Special Status is given by the Constitution of India through an act passed by the two-third majority of the both upper house and lower house,It is same that happened with jammu and Kashmir
- Special Status deals with the political and legislative rights
SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS:
- Special Category Status is granted by the National Development Council (NDC),an administrative body of the government.
- It deals with economic,administrative and financial aspects.
Back Ground:
The Concept of Special Category Status Came into existence in 1969.The 5th Finance Commission was decided to hand hold the economically back ward states by providing Special Category Status
such that by providing special central assistance and tax breaks etc.,
Initially only three Indian States have the SCS namely : Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir
Later eight more states added under this category.
At present there are 11 states that enjoying the Special Status and Special Category Status :
Arunachal Pradesh | Assam | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu and Kashmir | Manipur | Meghalaya | Mizoram | Nagaland | Sikkim | Tripura | Uttatakhanad
Constraints that has to be satisfied by the State in order to get Special Category Status :
- Low resource base, hilly & difficult terrain
- Low population density or sizable share of tribal population
- Backwardness, border states/ sharing the international border
- Economic & infrastructural backwardness
- Non-viable nature of state finances
Who decides to grant the special category status to the State ?
Special Category Status is granted by the NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL,which composed of the honorable prime minister,Union ministers, Chief ministers of all the states and members of the planning commission who guide the working of the planning commission.Here funds has to be transfer from central to state government,so two bodies involved in this Planning Commission and Finance Commission.
The Planning Commission allocates funds to states through central assistance for state plans. The Central assistance is split in to three main components :
- Normal Central Assistance (NCA)
- Additional Central Assistance (ACA)
- Special Central Assistance (SCA)
Normal Central Assistance (NCA) :
This is the main assistance of the state plans and it splits to favour the Special Category States
- The Special Category States get the 30% of the the total assistance and remaining 70% of the assistance is allocated between the non special category states
- The nature of the assistance varied between the special category states after the 12th palnning commission
1) NCA is split into 90% grants and 10% loans for the special category states
2) Whereas grants and loan ration is 30:70 in case of the non special category states.
*They allocate the funds among the Special Category Steates on the basis of the States's plan size and previous year expenditure
ALLOCATION AMONG THE NON-SPECIAL CATEGORY STATES:
They allocate the funds among the non-special category states based on the GADGIL MUKHERJEE FORMULA which is finally revised in the year 2000.It was named after the deputy chairman of the planning commission (1969) Dr.D R GADGIL.Due to lack of obejectivity in the formula it does not lead to the equal growth of the states.Then National Development Council held meeting on 11th October,1990 and revised and approved the formula.
The Criteria for inter-state allocation of plan assistance:
Benefits that can be availed by the Special Category Status :
Beyond the additional plan resources,the Special Category States can enjoy :
- Concession in Custom Duties and Excise tax.
- Income tax rates and Commercial tax rates as determined by the government.
- There is lot of scope to attract the huge number of industrial units to establish the manufacturing units.
- As Center assisting the state,so there is no budget constraint for the Special Category States
are demanding their names to be included in the list of special category states in order to exploit the
numerous benefits.
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