Sisodia cites displeasure over no hike in Delhi's share in Central taxes

Citing that the national Capital has again been deprived of its legitimate share in Central taxes, Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia expressed "huge" disappointment with the Union Budget.

Reacting sharply on the Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday, he said: "Delhi deserves its legitimate share in Central Taxes to finance various developmental projects. We had requested the Centre a number of times to enhance the allocation to at least Rs 5,000 crore as share in Central Taxes as against Rs 325 crore being released to Delhi."

"The Budget of Delhi has increased from Rs 8,739 crore in the year 2001-02 to Rs 46,600 crore in the current fiscal, whereas the share in Central Taxes has remained frozen at Rs 325 crore since 2001-02. However, states are getting share in Central taxes every year based on the annual increase in collection of Central taxes," Sisodia pointed. Further he hit out at Centre for not allocating any grant for local bodies.

Sisodia, who is also Deputy CM of the Capital city, said: "We had requested for allocation of Rs 4,087 crore as local bodies grant, as the Union is providing basic and performance grants to local bodies in all states. However, local bodies in Delhi are not getting any support from the Centre although we are providing 10.5 per cent of our annual tax collection to the Local Bodies."

In the Union Budget, an amount of Rs 5 crore as Grant has been proposed for GNCTD towards Disaster Response Fund which is at the same level of Rs 5 crore in the current year. Thus, not a single rupee has been enhanced in the Budget for of Delhi by the Government of India, the Deputy CM added.

Sisodia also slammed Jaitley for not going all the way to do away with anonymous donations to political parties. "Why are political parties free to accept cash donations up to Rs 2,000? Why does a vegetable vendor need to go cashless for even transactions of Rs 20 and parties can accept Rs 2,000 in cash?," he asked.

Jaitley, in his Budget speech on Wednesday, announced that political parties receiving donations above Rs 2,000 will now have to disclose the identity of the donor-a sharp decline from the earlier limit of Rs 20,000.