CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Government has decided to replace the State Planning Commission with a Development Policy Council in consonance with the Centre’s approach in doing away with distinction between plan and non-plan allocations.

This was announced by state Finance Minister D Jayakumar during his budget presentation in the state assembly on Thursday.

He said the Union Government had done away with the distinction between Plan and Non-Plan allocations in the budget formulation from 2017-18. The state government welcomed the Centre’s move since it was one of the long standing demands of late AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa as it would simplify the budgetary process and keep the focus firmly on the functional classification of expenditure, he said. “In consonance with the above approach, this government will replace the State Planning Commission with the State Development Policy Council to advise the Government on policy coherence and formulation of programmes to guide development of the State”, Jayakumar said.–