The Narendra Modi led Central government on Tuesday, in its final statement perhaps has denied any chance of granting of special category to any state.Union Minister of State for home, Nityanand Rai told the Parliament that the Central government had increased the tax divulution to the states from 32 per cent to 42 per cent as per the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission.
The fifteenth Finance Commission, too asserted the same, Nitryanand Rai said.The funds are being released to the states, including Andhra Pradesh, the Minister said, in reply to the questions by Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu and Vallabhaneni Balashowry in the Lok Sabha during question hour.
The objective has been to fill the resource gap of each State to the extent possible through tax devolution, the minister said.He further said that Post-Devolution Revenue Deficit Grants have been provided to States where devolution alone could not cover the assessed gap.
However, the government has agreed to give special assistance to the State of Andhra Pradesh to make up for the additional Central share the State might have received during 2015-16 to 2019-20, if the funding of Centrally Sponsored Schemes would have been shared at the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the State.
Earlier in February, YSRCP Rajya Sabha Member V Vijayasai Reddy has said that the Centre’s reasons for not granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh is “flawed, unreasonable, unjustified and untenable”.
He alleged the Centre was taking advantage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which was “loosely drafted” by the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government with “many anomalies and lacunae” in it.Reddy also termed the reduction of borrowing limits of the state as “step-motherly treatment”.
