Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was sharing his broad national concern with commission chairman N.K. Singh and its members here in Jubilee Hall.
He said the formula proposed by the state for tax devolution was primarily guided by the imperative to strike a balance between equity and efficiency.
“We cannot improve the lot of the backward states by pulling down the performing states,” he said. “Taking into account the dire need to realign resources in favour of states and the fiscal autonomy foregone by states in the interests of tax harmonisation, we request the Commission to increase tax devolution to 50 per cent of the divisible pool of central taxes.”
He also stressed on the need to bring out an attractive and practical tax amnesty scheme for bringing black money to the country.
Mr Rao on Tuesday requested the 15th Finance Commission to increase tax devolution to 50 per cent of the divisible pool of Central taxes. This can easily be accommodated by the Centre by reducing its expenditure on state subjects.
He also stressed on the need to bring out an attractive and practical tax amnesty scheme for bringing black money to the country and to invest it in infrastructure before the 15th Finance Commission.
He expressed displeasure at the Centre for not referring the inter water dispute to the Tribunal despite Telangana’s request in 2014.
He pointed out that “Inter-State River Water Dispute Tribunals take decades to give their verdict. What can a state do with this kind of speed?”
Talking about tax amnesty, Mr Rao said amnesty scheme had resulted in a disclosure of Rs 24,00,000 crore in Indonesia in 2016-17 and Rs 9,79,550 crore in Italy in 2009.
“What is also a matter of great concern is that proceeds of road cess and clean energy cess are not being passed on to the states fully, as repeatedly pointed out by C&AG,” Mr Rao said. “Short transfer of road cess amounted to Rs 72,726 crore and that of clean energy cess to Rs 44,505 crore at the end of 2017-18.”
Explaining the various welfare schemes including the Rythu Bandhu and Kaleswaram project and Mission Bhagiratha, Mr Rao said that Mission Bhagiratha is the one and only such scheme in the country to provide safe drinking water to every household and the finance commission should recommend for financial assistance and adequate support to the noble scheme.
Responding to a speech by chief minister Mr Rao, the commission N.K. Singh broadly agreed with Mr Rao on the need for rationalisation of Centrally-sponsored schemes and also agreed that cesses and surcharges should not be continued indefinitely.
The commission and N.K. Singh appreciated Mission Bhagiratha and Kaleshwaram by calling them “engineering marvels”.
