Finance Manish Sisodia on Wednesday, in a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urged to increase the share of central taxes to Delhi which has been ‘stagnant’ since 2001-02 and increase central assistance to neighbouring States to fight air pollution in the region.
Mr. Sisodia said that the government of NCT of Delhi is only getting grants in lieu of share in central taxes and that too has been kept stagnant at ₹325 crore since 2001-02, while all other States get an enhanced share in central taxes every year.
The Minister also requested the Union Finance Minister to allocate GNCTD’s the legitimate share of about ₹3202 crore in the ad hoc settlement of unsettled IGST balance of ₹1.68 lakh crore, as on 31.03.2018, in the current year itself, an official statement said.
“The central assistance given by Government of India to NCT of Delhi was ₹370 crore in the year 2000-01 and after 18 years it is still ₹472 crore as allocated in the Union Budget 2019-20 of MHA, GOI. However, our expenditure on various schemes/programmes has increased by more than 8 times i.e. from ₹3,129 crore in 2000-01 to ₹27,000 crore in 2019-20 [BE],” an official statement said.
The normal central assistance which was 11.8% of the plan expenditure in 2000-01 and has declined to just 2% in 2019-20 (BE). “It is therefore requested to increase the Normal Central Assistance to at least ₹1,500 crore in the current year revised estimates and ₹1,800 crore in 2020-21 [BE],” the letter said.
Mr. Sisodia said that the Government of India has launched a scheme — ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanisation for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the State of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh & NCT of Delhi — to tackle air pollution and to subsidise machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue in these States.
“Under this scheme, Government of India has also released ₹4.52 crore to NCT of Delhi and funds amounting to ₹273.80 crore, ₹192.06 crore and ₹l 05.29 crore to the States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in CFY 2019-20 till 31. 11.2019. However, more stubble burning cases were recorded this time as compared to last year despite a strict enforcement,” Mr. Sisodia’s letter said.
To tackle the issue of air pollution in Delhi, Central government needs to augment the financial assistance to our neighbouring states, Mr. Sisodia said.
