CM KCR reveals brief report on funds sanctioned by Centre to Telangana

Hyderabad, March 04: The Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that Telangana has got only Rs. 81,362 crore from the Centre in the last four years while the contribution of the State to Centre's revenues was two-and-a-half times more.

"The releases were not a rupee more than what was guaranteed under Article 270 of the Constitution under which taxes are collected by the Centre and shared with the State governments. The releases were also as per recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and on par with all other States," Mr. Rao told a press conference on Saturday.

He said the Centre did not even consider the recommendation of NITI Aayog to sanction Rs. 19,000 crore to Mission Bhagiratha and Rs. 5,000 crore to Mission Kakatiya programmes of the State government as they were unique in nature.

Mr. Rao released to reporters a statement showing the poor status of assurances given to Telangana under the States Reorganisation Act. The Centre had provided a budget this year for the setting up of a tribal university in the State as mentioned in the Act but it required a Central legislation to commence construction.

The amount required to set up the Horticulture University was at least Rs. 300 crore but the Centre sanctioned only Rs. 200 crore and released Rs. 135 crore so far.

Centre was supposed to give tax incentives to promote industrialisation. Notification regarding tax incentive in the form of accelerated depreciation has not benefitted anyone. However, tax incentives on the lines of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have not been given which was expected from the Centre. Rs. 450 crore was yet to be sanctioned and released as backward area grants, he said.