Article 275 of Indian Constitution: Grants from the Union to certain States
Article 275 of Indian Constitution
Original Text:
(1) Such sums as Parliament may by law provide shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund of India in each year as grants-in-aid of the revenues of such States as Parliament may determine to be in need of assistance, and different sums may be fixed for different States:
Provided that there shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of India as grants-in-aid of the revenues of a State such capital and recurring sums as may be necessary to enable that State to meet the costs of such schemes of development as may be undertaken by the State with the approval of the Government of India for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes in that State or raising the level of administration of the Scheduled Areas therein to that of the administration of the rest of the areas of that State:
Provided further that there shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of India as grants-in-aid of the revenues of the State of Assam sums, capital and recurring, equivalent to—
(a) the average excess of expenditure over the revenues during the two years immediately preceding the commencement of this Constitution in respect of the administration of the tribal areas specified in 1[Part I] of the table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule; and
(b) the costs of such schemes of development as may be undertaken by that State with the approval of the Government of India for the purpose of raising the level of administration of the said areas to That of the administration of the rest of the areas of that State.
(1A) On and from the formation of the autonomous State under article 244A,—
(i) any sums payable under clause (a) of the second proviso to clause (1) shall, if the autonomous State comprises all the tribal areas referred to therein, be paid to the autonomous State, and, if the autonomous State comprises only some of those tribal areas, be apportioned between the State of Assam and the autonomous State as the President may, by order, specify;
(ii) there shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund of India as grants-in-aid of the revenues of the autonomous State sums, capital and recurring, equivalent to the costs of such schemes of development as may be undertaken by the autonomous State with the approval of the Government of India for the purpose of raising the level of administration of that State to that of the administration of the rest of the State of Assam.]
(2) Until provision is made by Parliament under clause (1), the powers conferred on Parliament under that clause shall be exercisable by the President by order, and any order made by the President under this clause shall have effect subject to any provision so made by Parliament:
Provided that after a Finance Commission has been constituted, no order shall be made under this clause by the President except after considering the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
Article 275 of Indian Constitution Explanation:
We have already seen in the Centre-state relations article that the taxation powers in India are skewed towards the Centre. In order to financially assist the states, the constitution of India makes a mechanism of ‘Grants’ which the Union can utilise. The constitution provides two types of grants:
- Statutory Grant (Article 275): Parliament may provide grant-in-aid from CFI to the states in need of such funds, and different sums may be fixed for different states.
- Discretionary Grant (Article 282): Any grant that is made by the executive action is a discretionary grant; It requires no law to be passed by the Union or state Legislature. It was prominent under the Planning Commission.
Article 275(1) provides for the payment of such funds to the states which are actually in need of assistance. However, the term “need” has not been clearly defined in the constitution. Such an amount is charged to the Consolidated Fund of India each year as a grant in aid.
- Inter-state Variation: The amount will be decided by the laws made by the legislative powers of the parliament, and it may vary from state to state.
- Amount for development of STs & scheduled areas: The amount shall be paid out of India’s consolidated fund to enable the state to recover the cost of developmental schemes and to promote the welfare of STs and administration of Scheduled areas within a state to match the rest of the state.
- The Expenditure for the development of tribal areas shall be paid from the consolidated fund of India as a grant in aid of the revenues of the state for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the STs or the administration of the scheduled areas in the state.
- The central government must approve the project, and the government will provide the recurring sums and required capital to meet the costs of these development schemes.
- Before commencing any developmental projects, the state of Assam must obtain approval from the Indian government, and the funds provided by the government must be utilized to cover the costs of these projects.
Article 275(2): It states that the President of India has the empowered to make decisions about the powers given to the government through this clause unless the parliament passes a law about a specific clause (1) of the same article.
Once the Finance Commission is established, the President of India can only make decisions about this clause after considering the Finance Commission’s recommendation.
| Amendment | Description |
| 22nd Amendment Act, 1969 |
It added a new Article 244A to the constitution and amended Article 275 of Indian Constitution to provide for the sums and grants payable to an autonomous state formed under Article 244A. According to this, the parliament is empowered to make a law for constituting an autonomous state of Assam and, also, to provide the legislature, a council of ministers, or both with such functions and powers as may be defined by that law. |
