Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday denied allegations from a few States, especially Tamil Nadu, that the Centre was appropriating the tax revenues and not returning enough to the State governments.
Addressing the ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ organised by the Union government here, she said taxes collected were given back to respective States as per the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
Elaborating on the taxes collected and devolved to Tamil Nadu from the financial year 2014-15 to 2022-23, she said the total funds given to the State as part of tax devolution, grants-in-aid and special assistance in this period was ₹6.97 lakh crore. In comparison, the total direct tax collection from Tamil Nadu in this period was ₹ 6.24 lakh crore, she said.
Pointing out that there was a usual criticism that cess collected by the Centre for various purposes was not returned to the State, she said the cess was returned in the form of assistance for building various infrastructure. She said the total cess collected from Tamil Nadu between 2014 and 2023 was ₹57,557 crore.
In the same period, she said the funds allocated to the State for various purposes included ₹37,965 crore for highways, ₹11,116 crore for the school education scheme ‘Samagra Shiksha’, ₹ 4,839 crore for the housing scheme of Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana - Rural, and 3,637 crore under ‘Gram Sadak Yojana’ for building roads in rural areas.
Clarifying that the Union government was not appropriating revenues from the Goods and Services Tax (GST), she said the State GST collected entirely went to the States, the Integrated GST revenue from a State is equally shared between the State and the Centre and around 41 % of the Central GST revenue from the State is also given back to the State.
Ms. Sitharaman later participated in the release of the book Maalyada - the sacred garland, which is an elaboration of Tiruppavai by Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer D. Jeysundhar with illustrations by artist Keshav. Speaking at the release, she remarked that Tiruppavai was a deceptively simple work, in which one can delve deep for philosophical and spiritual interpretations while also marvel at Andal’s observation and description of natural surroundings.
Stating that god will be present where one recites his name earnestly, she said when the Supreme Court was delivering the verdict on the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi case, a “descendant of Lord Anjaneya [monkey] was sitting on top of the court [building]”. “Those who want to believe can believe this,” she added.
Rajya Sabha member and music composer Ilaiyaraaja, founder of New Horizon Media Private Limited Badri Seshadri and others spoke.
