Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday disputed the Centre’s claim that there is no impact of the economic slowdown in the country.
He said the Centre is making tall claims on a daily basis, both in the Parliament and outside, that there is no effect of economic slowdown in the country, but the facts are quite different.
Stating that there is a decline in the funds received from the Centre towards the state’s share in taxes, he said there is no match between what the Central ministers are proclaiming in the Parliament and the ground realities.
He warned that if this situation continues, the state’s financial position may turn grave.
KCR, as the Chief Minister’s is popularly known, said that the economic situation is in a state of uncertainty and asked the Principal Secretary (finance) to decrease funds for all the departments in tune with the decrease in funds from the Centre. He also instructed all the departments to reduce expenditure.
Tthe Chief Minister also dashed a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her to release funds to the state as stipulated in the Budget or else declare the facts.
KCR is also planning to visit Delhi in the next five-six days to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sitharaman to apprise them of the difficulties faced by the state with funds not being released from the Centre.
According to an official statement, the review meeting conducted by the Chief Minister with top officials on Saturday felt that faulty polices of the Centre led to the present difficult situation.
It was noted that the Centre announced in the 2019-20 Budget that it will give Rs 19,719 crore to Telangana towards the state’s share in taxes. This is 6.2 per cent more than Rs 18,560 crore allocated in the 2018-19 Budget.
“However, till date the Centre gave Rs 224 crore less. This would mean that as against 6.2 per cent hike as proposed in the current financial year Budget, there is in fact a decline of 2.13 per cent,” the statement said.
Principal Secretary (finance) Ramakrishna Rao recently visited Delhi and brought to the notice of the Central government officials that Telangana got 8.3 per cent less on the tax share account. He said due to the decrease in the funds allocation, several schemes in the state would face difficulties.
Responding to him, the Central government officials said the situation is grim and cautioned that the decrease may well go up from 8.3 per cent to 15 per cent.
The meeting observed that the Centre also failed to give Rs 2,812 crore IGST funds as part of GST for 2017-18.
Also, the state is yet to receive Rs 1,719 crore GST compensation dues from the Centre.
