None of the four issues flagged by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia at a recent pre-Budget meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led to any change in the budgetary outlay for the Capital.
In a statement, Mr. Sisodia pointed out that Delhi’s share in Central Taxes and Central Assistance had not been increased. He also pointed out that no provision had been made for funds to be disbursed to local bodies.
“In the Union Budget 2019-20, Delhi’s share in Central Taxes has not been increased from ₹325 crore... it has been stagnant since 2001-02,” he said, adding: “We had requested the Centre to enhance the allocation to at least ₹6,000 crore as share in Central Taxes.”
On no allocation of funds for local bodies, the Deputy CM said: “We had requested the allocation of ₹1,150 crore as basic and performance grants to local bodies in Delhi in 2019-20. We are providing 12.5% of our annual net tax collection to the local bodies. However, the local bodies in Delhi are not getting any financial support from the Centre.”
The Delhi Finance Minister said that the Centre had also declined to increase Central Assistance to the Capital.
“The Delhi government had requested Central Aid to be increased to ₹1,500 crore in 2019-20,” he said.
“The legitimate demand of Delhi for its share of about ₹3,202 crore in the unsettled amount of ₹1.68 lakh crore of IGST, which was devolved to the Centre and State without Delhi getting any share, has not been addressed in 2019-20 Budget. No funds have been allocated for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi under this item,” the statement added.
In another statement, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the Centre’s “step-motherly treatment” towards Delhi had continued with Budget 2019-20.
“The Budget allocation to Delhi has remained stagnant at a miserly ₹325 crore since 2002, despite being one of the highest contributors of income tax,” said AAP MPs N.D. Gupta and Sushil Gupta.