Increase allocation for Delhi & give funds to municipal bodies, CM urges Centre
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a week before tabling the Budget of the new Central Government. In the meeting, the Delhi CM urged the Centre to increase the money allocation for Delhi, also to give funds to the municipalities and also to release pending fund for IGST which is a pending project.
"I have also assured the Finance Minister that the Delhi government will co-operate with the Centre on every possible for the development of Delhi," said the Chief Minister.
"The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister told the Union Finance Minister that Delhi contributes around Rs 1.5 lakh crore as Income Tax towards the Central exchequer, however in return Delhi gets merely Rs 325 crore as share in central taxes, which too has been frozen since nearly two decades. In comparison, the share of other states in central taxes is quite high," noted a government statement. It further observed that the Delhi Chief Minister told the Union Finance Minister that the more the Centre invests in Delhi, it will lead to a boom in economy here and Delhiites will provide more tax collections to the Centre.
"The Union Finance Minister was also apprised of the fact that the Centre provides grants to states for the civic bodies, however, Delhi has been deprived of this and therefore the Municipal Corporations are not getting any help from the Centre. The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister requested Finance Minister Sitharaman to provide funds for the Municipal Corporations to improve their financial conditions," noted the statement.
The Delhi government also requested the Union to clear Rs 3,000 crore pending integrated goods and services tax (IGST) dues of Delhi. The IGST dues for the first year of the roll-out of the indirect tax in 2017-18 are still pending.
"Met Union Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman. Congratulated her for assuming charge of such an imp Ministry. Assured her of full cooperation from Del govt and stressed the need for Del govt and Centre to work together for improving Delhi," tweeted Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Ahead of the Budget 2019, FM Sitharaman has been meeting Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers of every state in her pre-budget meeting exercise to seek suggestions and expectation of every state from the upcoming Budget. Delhi government, over the past, had been demanding that the share in central taxes and duties for it should be increased.
