15th Finance Commission not fair to Tamil Nadu: OPS

CHENNAI: Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Tuesday charged that the final report of the 15th Finance Commission (FC) has belied the hopes of performing States like TN. Recalling the interim report of the 15th FC while presenting the Interim Budget for 2021-22, he said that the report had given hope for fair treatment to TN.

“But the recommendations are disappointing and the injustice done to TN by earlier Commissions, and in particular by the 14th FC, have not been redressed,” he added. “The vertical devolution of taxes from the Centre to the States has been maintained at 41 per cent.

The inter-se horizontal share of TN which was at 4.189 per cent in the Interim Report of the 15th FC, has now come down to 4.079 per cent in the final report,” he pointed out. The interim report had for the first time recommended a revenue deficit grant for Tamil Nadu for 2020-21 amounting to `4,025 crore which had raised hopes of sustained support. But in the final report, a reduced revenue deficit grant of `2,204 crore has been recommended only for the first year, 2021-22.