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State ministers on Thursday held a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and called for higher budgetary allocations and also offered suggestions on fiscal policy.
Andhra Pradesh has sought ₹1,500 crore to develop industrial estates and a waiver of revenue deficit norms.
“The revenue deficit is not of our making as it resulted from the State’s reorganisation,” said Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister.
Similarly, Tamil Nadu suggested including the surcharge on the super-rich and other surcharges in the divisible pool of resources to the States.
“I request the Government of India to raise the standard deduction permitted for the personal income tax from ₹1.50 lakh to ₹2.50 lakh and accord similar revision for elderly people,” said Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam.
Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi said that economically backward States like Bihar needed additional central assistance so as to develop at a faster pace.
With the setting up of the 15th Finance Commission, some States also sought higher devolution of resources on the ground that fund allocations had been reduced from the Centre due to reduction of horizontal devolutionary share
This was a customary pre-Budget meeting of States with the Union Finance Minister, who had earlier also met sectoral experts and representatives including bankers, trade union members, agriculturalists and economists.
The Union Budget for 2018-19 will be presented in Parliament on February 1.
“The Union Finance Minister stated that the suggestions made by the States and Union Territories in the meeting and the memorandum submitted by them would be duly examined and suitably considered while formulating the Budget proposals of 2018-19, keeping in consideration with the spirit of cooperative federalism,” said a Finance Ministry statement.
The meeting was attended by the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, the deputy chief ministers of Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Manipur and Tamil Nadu, 14 finance ministers/ministers representing their States, among others.
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