Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, has called upon the Centre to urgently provide financial assistance to the UT which had seen a total collapse of revenue from its mainstay sources of excise, GST and tourism due to the extended lockdown to check spread of COVID-19.
Mr. Narayanasamy, who had participated in the video call convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Ministers on Saturday, told mediapersons that the government had not received GST compensation for the last four months.
Pointing out that he had attended the three previous meetings, Mr. Narayanasamy said that he had also written to the Prime Minister, highlighting the unique position of the Union Territory of Puducherry and Union Territory of Delhi.
“Till date, we have not received even a single paisa from the Government of India for Puducherry, but, we have given ₹2,000 to each family, irrespective of them being an APL family or a BPL family, to help them come out of the crisis. Besides, an aid of ₹5,000 had been given to the farmers, and an interest-free loan of ₹5000 to self help group women,” the Chief Minister said.
Puducherry had primarily two revenue streams — excise and GST— which had totally dried up after the lockdown.
“Therefore, income generation — for the purpose of paying salary to the employees and to take care of the public welfare schemes — is very difficult for us,” he said.
He also flagged the loss of livelihoods, closure of business establishments and industries with economic activities coming to a grinding halt, for the last three weeks.
“Except the agriculture sector, all other activities have come to a standstill and the states are not having sufficient funds,” he said.
Apart from that, labourers in the organised and unorganised sectors, construction workers, migrant labourers, small shop owners, people running MSMEs, were among the worst hit sections.
With the lockdown likely to continue through the month, Mr. Narayansamy pointed out that industries would not be able to shelter migrant labourers. He also sought to know if any provision has been made, if the migrant workers wanted to return to their home states.
Mr. Narayanasamy also echoed the calls of other chief ministers for a six-month moratorium on remittances to the Centre and called for hassle-free movement of essential commodities from producing states to client states.
Mr. Narayanasamy also joined some chief ministers in urging the Prime Minister to rein in Governors and Lt. Governors who were "playing politics" and interfering in the administration of government during the crisis.
