Govt plans to hold third-party review of key central schemes
An official said that the proposed exercise will focus on “packages” or groups of these scheme in nine sectors, which make up more than 10% of the Union budget
The Union government is in the process of having all key centrally sponsored schemes evaluated by multi-disciplinary consultancies for performance, efficiency and implementation, which will help recast and rationalise them, two officials aware of the development said on Sunday.
The proposed exercise will focus on “packages” or groups of these scheme in nine sectors, which make up more than 10% of the Union budget, one official said. The multi-disciplinary consultancies will be picked through competitive bids by the Niti Aayog, the state-run think tank.
Government departments and the Niti Aayog routinely monitor key policies and suggest recommendations. Previous evaluations have helped to consolidate programmes, bring down their total number and cut down on costs.
The Centre currently runs about 37 centrally sponsored programmes, which are aimed at boosting economic and social sector outcomes in areas such as guaranteed rural employment, rural roads, housing, irrigation, health and agriculture.
A key purpose of the fresh evaluation is to get a holistic assessment of the status of not just the schemes, but also the sectors they belong to, a second official said. The studies will also look into outcomes of schemes in which the Centre unconditionally transfers funds to states, giving them full flexibility in spending.
The NK Singh-led 15th Finance Commission had flagged the issue of inefficient spending in development programmes. “Concerns arise because, even after some recent consolidation, India’s specific-purpose transfers have been channelled through a large number of discretionary cost-sharing centrally sponsored schemes and non-matching central sector schemes. They are not generally linked to outcomes,” it had stated.
While all such schemes are implemented by states, the fund-sharing pattern between the Centre and states for most programmes is 60:40, except in northeastern and hill states, where it is 90:10.
Some schemes have equal Centre-states shares, such as the Jal Jeevan Mission, which is 50:50 in all states, barring northeastern and hill states, where it is 90:10.
The government also runs a few central sector schemes, which are entirely funded by the Centre. Besides, there are so-called “core of core schemes”. The Union budget 2024-25 had raised allocations to the six “core of core schemes” to ₹1.12 lakh crore for 2024-25 from revised estimates (2023-24) of ₹1.08 lakh crore, an increase of 3%.
These include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), National Social Assistance Programme, Umbrella Programme for Development of Minorities, Umbrella Programme for Development of Other Vulnerable Groups, Umbrella Programme for Development of Scheduled Tribes, Umbrella Scheme for Development of Schedule Castes.
The proposed evaluation will categorise schemes into three segments -- those introduced before the 15th Finance Commission, plans launched during the cycle of the commission and new schemes launched only recently, the second official said.
“Schemes launched prior to the 15th Finance Commission cycle (prior to 2019-20) are more amenable to full-scale evaluation,” one of the guidelines set by the Niti Aayog for exercise states.
For schemes introduced during the 15th Finance Commission’s cycle, “one needs to be cognisant that new schemes need time to be introduced, take off, and stabilise,” according to the guidelines. Further, there are “new schemes” for which only limited assessment of their progress is possible to date, the guidelines state.
“The evaluation should take into account that many schemes face problems because poorer states cannot generate enough funds. There is a need to identify which schemes require matching funds,” said Alok Mohan, economist, Indian Statistical Institute.