VV Balakrishna By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: In a fresh offensive against the BJP government at the Centre, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday said tax devolution to the States was not an act of Centre’s generosity and not a favour. “On the other hand, Central tax devolution is the Constituional right of the State,” he said.

Reacting to BJP member T Raja Singh’s demand for disclosure of details of the funds received by the State from the Centre, the Chief Minister said: “How much did we get? It’s our money and we got way less than the taxes that the Centre collects from us”.

In his reply to the general discussion on the State Budget in the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday, the Chief Minister said: “In fact, we are not getting anything from the Centre. We are not even getting the Central devolution on time. We will pay salaries to the State government employees based on the Central devolution. If we rely on the BJP government for funds, we will go bankrupt,” Rao said.

The Chief Minister said Telangana was one of the top three States among six or seven States that was funding the Centre.

“The taxes being collected by the Central government in Telangana are around `50,000 crore per year. But, in return, the State is getting only `24,000 crore per year,” Rao explained.

Telangana was contributing to nation-building and the State was getting no extra funds from the Centre, he said, and pointed out that the State was one among the three top States that was feeding the country.

“The State gets two types of funds from the Centre. One, the share in taxes collected by the Centre in the States. We should consider it as Central devolution. It is the share of the taxes as per the Constitution. The present BJP government even cut `3,900 crore in Central devolution. No government in the past has cut the Central devolution. Second, the States will receive funds for the Central schemes. The funds received by the States for the Centrally-sponsored schemes never touched `10,000 crore mark in any year. In fact, it is not more than `7,000 crore,” the CM said.