Chief Spokesperson of Andhra Pradesh BJP Sudheesh Rambhotla on Thursday said special category status was no longer special and there was no point in clamouring for it.
At a press conference here, he said the NDA government upon realising that SCS alone would not meet all the developmental needs of Andhra Pradesh has asked the Niti Aayog to come up with comprehensive report on what should be done for AP. He said it would be better to demand for special development package for the State.
He said the 14{+t}{+h}Finance Commission has done away with the distinction between special allocations and general allocations.
It was the NDA government which extended its tenure by two months and gave an additional term of reference to take into account the resources available to successor States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The 14{+t}{+h}Finance Commission has recommended that an assistance of Rs.22,113 crore for Andhra Pradesh between 2015 and 2020 to meet its budgetary deficit.
Mr. Sudheesh said with the proposed introduction of GST all over the country from 2016, giving total tax holiday would create problems as input credits would not be available to purchasers. Besides, after the end of concession period to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it was observed that lot of units were closed down.
