New Delhi, Dec 12: The Finance Ministry in a statement on Saturday said it has approved Rs 9,879.61 crore worth capital expenditure proposals of 27 states. Of this, Rs 4,939.81 crore has been released as the first instalment.

The Ministry stated that all states, except Tamil Nadu, have availed benefits of the newly announced scheme for ‘Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure’, which was announced on October 12 as part of AatmaNirbhar Bharat package.

The Scheme has three parts.

Part –I of the scheme covers the north-eastern region. Under this part, Rs.200 crores is allocated to 7 north-eastern States including Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. In view of the higher population and geographical area, Assam has been allocated Rs.450 crores under the scheme.

Part-II of the Scheme is, for all other States not included in Part-I. An amount of ₹7,500 crores is earmarked for this part. This amount has been allocated amongst these States in proportion to their share of central tax as per the interim award of the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2020-21.

Part-III of the Scheme is aimed at pushing various citizen-centric reforms in the States. Under this Part, an amount of ₹2,000 crores is earmarked. This amount will be available only to those states who carry out at least 3 out of the 4 reforms specified by the Ministry of Finance in its letter dated 17th May 2020 regarding reform linked additional borrowing permissions.

The capital expenditure projects have been approved in diverse sectors like health, rural development, water supply, irrigation, power, transport, education, urban development.

As part of the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Package, the Centre had announced that the government will offer ₹12,000 crores special interest-free 50-year loan to states, exclusively for capital expenditure.