Telangana finance minister Etela Rajender accuses Centre for being bias

Hyderabad: Telangana finance minister Etela Rajender on Saturday lashed out at the NDA government at the Centre, accusing it of not extending any special financial assistance to the new state of Telangana.

Mr Rajender criticised the Centre for not releasing CST arrears and the backward areas development fund to Telangana state so far, while extending the same to Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Rajender attended the states finance ministers' meeting convened by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi on Saturday.

He told the meeting, “As per AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the Centre should provide special package for the development of backward areas in AP and TS.

Though NITI Aayog recommended a special package to the Union finance ministry for TS, it was not honoured till today, while AP was given Rs 700 crore.”

The state finance minister pointed out discrimination in release of basic grants to urban and rural local bodies.

“All states except TS got basic grants for 2015-16 for local bodies as recommended by the 13th Finance Commission. We have fulfilled all the requirements for these grants but the Centre has denied '778 crore grant,” he said.

He even found fault with the Centre for not enhancing the borrowing limit of TS from 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent of GSDP, for the last two years, despite the state meeting all the conditions.

The TS finance minister also came down heavily on the Centre for creating problems for the state government by issuing Income Tax notices.

“Is it fair to treat government agencies like HMDA, HMWS&SB etc. as business entities and issue Income Tax notices, when they are involved in city infrastructure development activities and supply of drinking water to the people?” he asked.