The 14th Finance Commission had recommended grants amounting to approximately ₹8,654 crore for the years 2015-16 to 2019-20 to the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) in Andhra Pradesh, of which a sum of ₹8,125 crore was released, according to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In a written reply to a question asked by Visakhapatnam MP M.V.V. Satyanarayana in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Ms. Sitharaman said the Ministry of Finance recommends that the grants to RLBs be directly given to the State governments, not to the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and the fulfilment of the eligibility conditions is monitored by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR).
On the basis of recommendations received from the MoPR, basic grants for all the five financial years of the award period (2015-16 to 2019-20) were released to the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the performance grants for 2016-17 to 2017-18 were also released for eligible panchayats.
However, the performance grants for 2018-19 and 2019-20 could not be released due to non-fulfilment of the stipulated conditions. No performance grant was recommended by the 14th Finance Commission for any State for 2015-16 financial year, and no balance grant is payable to Andhra Pradesh.
From April, 1 2020, funds recommended by the 15th Finance Commission are being released to all States including Andhra Pradesh.
