Stating that centre-state relations had deteriorated under the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) regime, a Tripura minister on Wednesday alleged that the Central government was allocating funds to states based on political consideration and not on performance.
“Sometimes, the UPA government plays the role of ‘Mahajan’ (money-lender) and does politics while allocating funds to the states,” state finance minister Badal Chaudhury, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Central committee member, told reporters here. “Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was very very generous while giving assurances to Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government and advised Tripura’s Left Front government to cut allocation on developmental schemes to provide salaries to employees.”
Referring to a letter from the finance minister, Chaudhury said: “Mukherjee has advised the Tripura government to curtail developmental works to meet other expenses. Only through development, the Left Front government has successfully tamed the four-decade old terrorism in Tripura.” According to the Tripura government, in view of the 13th Finance Commission’s (TFC) erroneous recommendations and awards on share of Central funds, the resource-starved Northeastern state has been facing unprecedented financial crisis.
The Tripura government had sought around Rs.27,000 crores to the TFC and the commission recommended about Rs 13,000 crores. "The UPA government, through the TFC awards and recommendations, enormously denied due financial share of the Central assistance," the minister said. “For expedite development, to ease tax burden on the common people and to give better services to them by not raising tax by the states, the centre should grant 50 per cent of the Central tax to the states instead of the existing 32 per cent,” Chaudhury said.