Bhubaneswar: The Union Government has issued detailed guidelines for providing special assistance to states for capital investment.

The Department of Expenditure of the Union Ministry of Finance has sent the guidelines to the Chief Secretaries of all states and union territories (UTs) recently.

Reforms in mining sector, scrapping of old vehicles and introduction of electronic enforcement of road safety, land-related reforms, digitization of land records, digital public infrastructure for agriculture, efficiency in financial management, urban planning reform and ease of doing business are some of the key components of the guidelines.

The states have been asked to undertake the above said reforms to avail special assistance for capital investment for 2025-26 fiscal.    

Mining sector reforms:

The Centre has asked the states to facilitate increase in mineral production and raise revenue collection.

Scrapping of old vehicles:

States told to promote voluntary scrapping of unfit and polluting commercial and passenger vehicles.

Electronic Enforcement of Road Safety:

The states have been advised to promote the electronic enforcement of ecosystem in the country and promote road safety towards achievement of the national goal of reducing fatalities by 50 per cent by 2030.

Land-related reforms in rural areas:

The objective is to accelerate and complete the modernisation and digitalization of the land records.

Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture:

The states told to accelerate the development of Digital Public Infrastructure to empower farmers and foster the development of the agricultural ecosystem.

Land-related reforms in urban areas:

The states are supposed to achieve the critical milestones in urban land records creation.

This would ensure that urban land records are accurate, up-to-date and seamlessly integrated with property tax records of ULBs.

Ease of doing business:

The Centre has asked the states to implement ease of doing business through compliance reduction and deregulation and enable setting up of new businesses and industries for job creation and economic growth.