News Desk: The Centre has released Rs 6,195.08 crore to 14 States as the second equated monthly instalment of the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted, “This would provide them (with) additional resources during the corona crisis”.
According to official sources, the Centre released advance payments of over Rs 631 crore to Assam. Some other states to have received the grant were Kerala (Rs 1,276 crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 952 crore), Punjab (Rs 638 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 491 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 423 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 417 crore).
The grant will help the state governments to take preventive and mitigation measures for containment of the COVID-19, including setting up quarantine facilities, sample collection and screening centres, and setting up additional testing laboratories.
Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grants is a mechanism provided by the Finance Commission for compensation of any loss incurred by states from the Centre.
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