Criticising the 15th Finance Commission’s recommendations pertaining to tax devolution to the State, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah said on Monday that Karnataka would lose nearly ₹60,000 crore in its tax share in the next five years.
“The 15th Finance Commission has meted out a massive injustice to Karnataka. The 14th Finance Commission had recommended 42% tax devolution to States for the year 2019-20, which roughly translates to ₹39,000 crore for Karnataka. But, the State is getting only ₹30,000 crore in 2019-20. As per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission recommendation, the amount of devolved taxes is going to drop to around ₹28,000 crore in 2020-21, a reduction of ₹11,258 crore. It means that the State will, in the next five years, lose nearly ₹60,000 crore in tax devolution alone,” he said.
“What are [Chief Minister] Yediyurappa and his 25 BJP Lok Sabha members from the State doing? Have they raised the issue with the Centre? How will the State develop when it receives back only 42% of the tax amount it pays to the Centre? The Centre gives little or no money even when we face floods. Yediyurappa himself accepted that the loss caused by the floods last year is estimated at ₹50,000 crores. It is ₹1 lakh crore in my opinion. Yediyurappa is not taking up the issue with the Centre as he is afraid of speaking to [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi and [Union Home Minister] Amit Shah. That is why I often call him the weakest Chief Minister the State has seen,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
When asked about Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan’s statement on the defection of 32 Congress MLAs to the BJP, the former Chief Minister said the dissent was gathering momentum in the BJP, not the Congress.
On the Indo-U.S. bilateral trade pacts expected to be signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s current visit to India, Mr. Siddaramaiah said there should be no agreement on importing milk from the U.S. as such a move would put domestic farmers, who are producing enough milk required for the country, in deep crisis.
