Bhubaneswar: Levelling serious allegations against the Centre, Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari Monday said the Union government is not implementing the 14th Finance Commission recommendation on sanction of funds under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
Replying to a question of BJD legislator Ashwini Kumar Patra, Pujari told the Assembly, “Though the 14th Finance Commission had recommended that the sharing pattern between the Centre and the state will be 90:10 for sanctioning funds under SDRF, the Centre is not following it.”
The state has received Rs 266 crore less under the SDRF as the Centre adopted the funding pattern of 75:25 instead of 14th FC’s recommendation of 90:10, he said.
“We have strongly protested this act of the Centre and demanded sanction of the remaining Rs 266 crore to the state,” Pujari said.
The minister said though the Commission said that the sharing formula between the Centre and states will be 90:10, the Centre in its explanatory memorandum had said that the previous sharing pattern of 75:25 will continue till implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST).
The Centre will follow the 14th FC’s recommendation only after implementation of the GST, the memorandum had mentioned.
“Meanwhile, the GST was implemented in July 2017. The Centre sanctioned the funds under SDRF at the sharing pattern of 90:10 for the 2018-19 fiscal. However, later they (the Centre) deducted the amount after making a calculation on the sharing pattern of 75:25,” Pujari said.
The state government drew attention of the Centre and wanted to know the reason behind making calculation on the basis of 75:25 even after implementation of the GST, he said.
The Ministry of Finance in a reply letter dated July 11, 2018 said that the 75:25 formula will continue till GST is stabilised, though there was no mention about ‘GST stabilisation’ in the FC’s recommendation which was presented in the Parliament, he pointed out.
Pujari said the state government has raised this issue in different forums like Inter-State Council, NITI Aayog and the Central government’s pre-budget discussion.
The Centre, in the last four years, has approved Rs 1.84 lakh crore financial assistance to state. The state has so far received Rs 1.66 lakh crore, which is Rs 17,299 crore less than the approved amount.
He further pointed out that though it has been recommended to sanction Rs 48,250 crore as the state’s share in the Central taxes in 2019-20 fiscal, the Centre in its budget has estimated only Rs 37,560 crore, which is again less by Rs 10,690 crore than the recommended amount.
