Meet seeks 50% of tax revenue for State

An all-party meeting convened by the government here on Friday, for eliciting their views and appraising them of the terms of reference of the Fifteenth Union Finance Commission, felt that the Centre should devolve 50% of its tax revenue to the State.

Briefing reporters about the details of the discussions, Finance Minister T.M.Thomas Isaac said that despite professing different views, the meeting felt that the Centre should devolve 50% of the tax revenue to the State and there should not be any precipitous dip in the allocation made by the Fourteenth Commission. The meeting also objected to the proposal to cut the borrowing limit of the State from 3% to 1.7%. The government, Dr. Isaac said, was willing to provide all details to the political parties to prepare their memorandum to be submitted to the commission.

The current proposal to fix the devolution package on the basis of the 2011 Census would wreak extensive damage to the State’s finances. The State would incur a loss of ₹8,000 crore a year and the total loss during the entire award period would be about ₹45,000 crore, he said.

The commission would be arriving here on May 28. It would have sittings with the government on May 28 morning, local self-government institution representatives and trade organisations in the afternoon and leave for Thrissur on May 30, where it would interact with grama panchayats and other associations. The government would include the view of political parties in its memorandum to the commission, he said.

A recent meeting of Finance Ministers of non-BJP States held in Amravati had decided to submit a memorandum to the President expressing the concerns of the States on the terms of reference of the commission, he said.

Earlier, addressing the meeting, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called upon the political parties to have a common stand on issues concerning the State.

The Centre, Mr. Vijayan said, was increasing the share of the State government on centrally sponsored Schemes. While the Centre was earning a sizeable income through cess and surcharges, there was a steep fall in the State’s income. The State was being penalised for its gains in curbing population growth. He also warned against the proposal to cut the borrowing limit of the State.

KPCC general secretary Thampanoor Ravi, P.C.George and K.Krishnankutty, MLAs, CMP leader C.P.John and CITU leader Elamaram Kareem were among those attended the meeting.