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Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao urges the Centre to release Rs 3,000 crore pending grants | Hyderabad News
HYDERABAD: Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao urged the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release the pending grants of about Rs 3,000 crore to the state government.
In a letter to Sitharaman on Monday, the Telangana minister said the Centre had not released backward areas development funds for the year 2019-20 and the current year which comes to about Rs 900 crore.
He said the 14th finance commission grants to local bodies amounts to Rs 817 crore (Rs 315 crore for rural and Rs 502 crore for urban local bodies). Though the state has fulfilled all the conditions, these grants were denied without any specific reason, the minister said.
Harish Rao mentioned a special grant of Rs 723 crore recommended by the 15th finance commission for 2020-2021 as the tax devolution for the state was projected to decline in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-2020. “Grants recommended by the finance commission were never denied in the past. Even Centre’s share on centrally sponsored schemes being implemented in Telangana, the first-year formation of the state 2014-15 was not released,” he said.
“As per the practice, the entire Centre’s share was released to AP by oversight, though it was apportioned in the ratio of population between AP and Telangana. The share of Telangana was wrongly released to AP amounting to Rs 495 crore. Though the matter was taken up to the notice of AP and auditor general, the amount is yet to be adjusted to Telangana. The amount needs to be released on priority basis,” Harish Rao said.
He also requested the Centre to release IGST settlement dues of about Rs 210 crore which is the due share of Telangana in the IGST amount of Rs 13,944 crore transferred by the Centre to the consolidated fund of India during 2018-19.
In a letter to Sitharaman on Monday, the Telangana minister said the Centre had not released backward areas development funds for the year 2019-20 and the current year which comes to about Rs 900 crore.
He said the 14th finance commission grants to local bodies amounts to Rs 817 crore (Rs 315 crore for rural and Rs 502 crore for urban local bodies). Though the state has fulfilled all the conditions, these grants were denied without any specific reason, the minister said.
Harish Rao mentioned a special grant of Rs 723 crore recommended by the 15th finance commission for 2020-2021 as the tax devolution for the state was projected to decline in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-2020. “Grants recommended by the finance commission were never denied in the past. Even Centre’s share on centrally sponsored schemes being implemented in Telangana, the first-year formation of the state 2014-15 was not released,” he said.
“As per the practice, the entire Centre’s share was released to AP by oversight, though it was apportioned in the ratio of population between AP and Telangana. The share of Telangana was wrongly released to AP amounting to Rs 495 crore. Though the matter was taken up to the notice of AP and auditor general, the amount is yet to be adjusted to Telangana. The amount needs to be released on priority basis,” Harish Rao said.
He also requested the Centre to release IGST settlement dues of about Rs 210 crore which is the due share of Telangana in the IGST amount of Rs 13,944 crore transferred by the Centre to the consolidated fund of India during 2018-19.
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