3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
South given only their money, cess up 600%: Congress debunks Amit Shah's claim in TNIE interview
Reacting to union home minister Amit Shah's interview with the TNIE, on Saturday, chairman, Professionals' Congress & Data Analytics (Indian National Congress) Praveen Chakravarty chose to debunk some of the claims made by the union minister.
On the claim that total allotment to five states in south India under tax devolution during the Narendra Modi government had increased in Grants-in-aid, Praveen Chakravarty reacted saying, "not true."
He further added, "It belonged to the states. That's number one. No one is giving. There's not some of your money that you're transferring over. They're not some rulers here. They're not kings here. Number two, the Union government imposed what's called cess and surcharge."
Praveen Chakravarty further added that the cess and surcharge has gone up 600% in the last 11 years.
"And what does cess and surcharge mean? It means I will keep that money only for the Union government and not share it with the state governments. That's what cess and surcharge means. So they've actually kept more money for themselves instead of giving to states what legitimately belong to the states'
Amit Shah had said that the total allotment to the five states under tax devolution during the Modi government has gone up to Rs 10,96,754 crore from Rs 3,55,466 crore, a 209 per cent increase.
Grants-in-aid now stand at Rs 9,38,518 crore—it was Rs 2,18,053 crore during the UPA. That's a 330 per cent rise. Tamil Nadu saw a 207 per cent growth in tax devolution—from Rs 94,977 crore to Rs 2.92 lakh crore. And grants-in-aid increased by 342 per cent—from Rs 57,924 crore to Rs 2.55 lakh crore.
On the Telangana census, Shah had said: What they are doing in Telangana is a survey. We are doing a census. There is a difference. In Karnataka, they tried, but had to scrap it.
The Congress leader reacted thus, 'He (Shah) said that it was a caste survey in the state not census. I'm the convener of the Telangana consensus committee. I'm writing a 300 page report. I think the question was, I remember, if I remember right, that the Union government announced the caste census on pressure."
