Central schemes to last till 2019-20

New Delhi: With the 12th Five Year Plan having ended almost six months back, and the 15-year vision document which was supposed to replace it nowhere near completion, the Centre has decided to extend all the centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS), whose tenure had ended with the 12th Plan period.

The three-year extension of CSS till 2019-20 is being viewed as the first step towards inserting a sunset clause for such schemes. After the extension, the schemes will now become co-terminus with the 14th Finance Commission, whose tenure also ends in 2019-20.

Highly placed sources said that from 2019-20, it will become a set pattern where the CSS will commence and end with the tenure of the finance commissions. This will help give the government a clear picture regarding the funds to be allocated to the schemes according to their effectiveness, they said.

This newspaper had first reported on June 5 that all CSS may soon have a sunset clause so as to streamline them according to their usefulness in meeting the desired objectives. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had directed the Niti Aayog to analyse 28 such CSS and chart out a roadmap for them. 

Subsequently in a recently held high-level meeting, the Niti Aayog is learnt to have finalised the proposal of making CSS co-terminus with the tenure of the 14th Finance Commission. Sources said concern was raised during the meeting over the fact that several CSS, which were co-terminus with the tenure of the 12th Five Year Plan, were yet to be reviewed even after six months of the end of  the Plan period.

The NDA government wanted to introduce a 15-year vision document to replace the Five-year Plan practice after the 12th Five-Year Plan lapsed on March 31. However, it is still to be finalised by the Niti Aayog.