CM seeks more Central funds
18 Jan 2013 11:35 PM GMT
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has raised a forceful demand to effect a substantial hike in the Central taxes share, which stands frozen at Rs 325 crore since 2001-02, despite the size of annual plan having gone up from Rs 8,973 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 33,436 cr in 2012-13.
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She exhorted the Union Finance Minister in a pre-budget consultation meeting on Wednesday to consider Delhi at par with all other states as far as direct funding from the Central Finance Commission to its civic bodies was concerned.
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According to Dikshit, Delhi government requires additional shares in Central taxes as well as grants keeping in view its huge expenditure on development of infrastructure, implementation of number of schemes through direct cash transfer mode and allocation of 65 per cent of its budget for social sector schemes.
She asked the Finance Minister to find a feasible way to help the capital, which is not only a city-state but also a metropolitan city housing 18 million people. In turn, Chidambaram assured to give due consideration to the issues raised by the chief minister.
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Dikshit said Delhi has enhanced its internal resource mobilisation to a huge extent in the last 15 years.
‘The city government, through better tax administration in VAT, excise, registration of properties, motor vehicle tax and so on, has been able to generate its own resources to fill the gap due to inadequate share in Central taxes. It has been frozen at the astonishingly low figure of Rs 325 crore. The corresponding figures of neighbouring states are Haryana (Rs 3,936 crore) and Punjab (Rs 4,029 crore). The amount of Rs 325 crore was fixed when our annual budget was Rs 8,973 crore,’ said Dikshit.
She added the share should be fixed at at least Rs 3,500 crore Delhi requires additional funds.
She further stated that Delhi was releasing a substantial amount of its resources to local bodies, as per the recommendations of the Delhi Finance Commission.
‘Delhi is being denied access to its just share in Central funds as per the recommendations of the Central Finance Commission i.e. grant to civic bodies out of Central funds as applicable in case of other states,’ she rued. Â
The chief minister stressed upon the need of inclusion of Delhi in terms of reference of Central Finance Commission to enable city government to claim for a reasonable share in Central taxes and an access to Central funds like other states.
PERFORM OR FACE THE MUSIC: SHEILA TO DISCOMS
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, on Thursday, told the DISCOMs and DTL in plain words to seriously anticipate future power demands in order to tie-up for additional power supply well-in-advance to avoid outages anywhere in the city. She expressed her displeasure over series of outages during extreme winter season, despite the fact that peak power demand was only 3,400 MW. This has exposed the claims of DISCOMs of having suitable tie-ups to requisition additional power as and when required. The chief minister stated the city government becomes victim of public ire during unscheduled power cuts and longer outages. She said another review will be taken next month to assess the extent of improvement. She warned the DISCOMs to act swiftly as the city government would not accept any excuses. ‘It is time to perform, otherwise the DISCOMs will have to face music,’ she said. She instructed the chief secretary and the principal secretary (Power) to keep a close eye on the power situation.
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She exhorted the Union Finance Minister in a pre-budget consultation meeting on Wednesday to consider Delhi at par with all other states as far as direct funding from the Central Finance Commission to its civic bodies was concerned.
Â
According to Dikshit, Delhi government requires additional shares in Central taxes as well as grants keeping in view its huge expenditure on development of infrastructure, implementation of number of schemes through direct cash transfer mode and allocation of 65 per cent of its budget for social sector schemes.
She asked the Finance Minister to find a feasible way to help the capital, which is not only a city-state but also a metropolitan city housing 18 million people. In turn, Chidambaram assured to give due consideration to the issues raised by the chief minister.
Â
Dikshit said Delhi has enhanced its internal resource mobilisation to a huge extent in the last 15 years.
‘The city government, through better tax administration in VAT, excise, registration of properties, motor vehicle tax and so on, has been able to generate its own resources to fill the gap due to inadequate share in Central taxes. It has been frozen at the astonishingly low figure of Rs 325 crore. The corresponding figures of neighbouring states are Haryana (Rs 3,936 crore) and Punjab (Rs 4,029 crore). The amount of Rs 325 crore was fixed when our annual budget was Rs 8,973 crore,’ said Dikshit.
She added the share should be fixed at at least Rs 3,500 crore Delhi requires additional funds.
She further stated that Delhi was releasing a substantial amount of its resources to local bodies, as per the recommendations of the Delhi Finance Commission.
‘Delhi is being denied access to its just share in Central funds as per the recommendations of the Central Finance Commission i.e. grant to civic bodies out of Central funds as applicable in case of other states,’ she rued. Â
The chief minister stressed upon the need of inclusion of Delhi in terms of reference of Central Finance Commission to enable city government to claim for a reasonable share in Central taxes and an access to Central funds like other states.
PERFORM OR FACE THE MUSIC: SHEILA TO DISCOMS
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, on Thursday, told the DISCOMs and DTL in plain words to seriously anticipate future power demands in order to tie-up for additional power supply well-in-advance to avoid outages anywhere in the city. She expressed her displeasure over series of outages during extreme winter season, despite the fact that peak power demand was only 3,400 MW. This has exposed the claims of DISCOMs of having suitable tie-ups to requisition additional power as and when required. The chief minister stated the city government becomes victim of public ire during unscheduled power cuts and longer outages. She said another review will be taken next month to assess the extent of improvement. She warned the DISCOMs to act swiftly as the city government would not accept any excuses. ‘It is time to perform, otherwise the DISCOMs will have to face music,’ she said. She instructed the chief secretary and the principal secretary (Power) to keep a close eye on the power situation.
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