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The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, said on Monday at Amaravati that performing, progressive states should not be penalised by the Centre. He said the Union Government should respect cooperative federalism.
He was speaking at the State Finance Ministers' conference at the AP Secretariat on Monday.
The Chief Minister said that the Government of India had not been adhering to the Constitutional norms and it was curtailing the borrowing powers of states by fixing FRBM in an irrational manner.
He said the 15th Finance Commission should not consider the 2011 population base, as it would badly hit devolution to states and performing states would be hit hard.
V Narayana Swamy, Chief Minister of Puducherry, said the Government of India had been trying to dictate terms to states. He said that in allocation of funds, the GoI was contending that New Delhi and Puducherry were Union Territories and not states and at the same time it was imposing heavy taxes.
He said the Government of India was not compensating the expenditure incurred by the State on welfare programmes. He alleged that GST turned out to be a huge burden to Union Territories.
Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of New Delhi, said the NDA Government had been violating the spirit of the Constitution. He stressed the need for exerting pressure on the Centre to protect the interests of states. He said that the Union Government should consider New Delhi and Puducherry as special cases in terms of reference.
TM Thomas Issac, Minister for Finance, Kerala, said GST was a huge burden on states. He said the Centre should not take 2011 population as the base for devolution of funds.
West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra alleged that the "Centre is trying to dilute the spirit of federalism." He stressed the need to fight for protecting the federal structure.
Manpreet Singh, Punjab Finance Minister, said: "The states are losing tax share due to GST."
Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Y. Ramakrishnudu said AP would stand to lose heavily, to the extent of Rs 8,000 crore, due to the faulty terms of reference given to the 15th Finance Commission and they should be changed.
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