Fadnavis: State got ₹28K-cr from Centre in three months
Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday hit back at the Thackeray-led government over claims that the Centre was biased against Maharashtra and had not given it enough assistance to tackle the pandemic.
Fadnavis, who held a press conference, said the Central government had given the state financial assistance worth ₹28,000 crore over past three months to directly and indirectly, through foodgrains for public distribution system (₹19,000 crore) under the Garib Kalyan Yojana, direct cash assistance under PM Kisan Samman Yojana, Jan Dhan Yojana, besides assistance to procure farm produce (₹9,069 crore), relief camps and trains for migrant labourers (₹1,911 crore), assistance for health equipment such as purchase of PPE kits and N-95 masks (₹2,160 crore), devolution of taxes (₹5,648 crore), etc.
Fadnavis said that he studied the central funds and assistance packages given by the Centre to Maharashtra to address “false claims and statements” being made in the media by those in the government. “Consistent efforts are being made in the state to show that the Centre has not been helping Maharashtra. The state is facing injustice at the hands of the Central government. This is completely false, but when fake statements are reiterated often a wrong perception can be created,” said Fadnavis.
The MVA allies refuted Fadnavis’s figures as computation of Centre’s share in various schemes and taxes which is mandatory.
The former CM also said the state could access nearly ₹78,000 crore of the fiscal package announced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. While he said that not everything announced by Sitharaman could be divided state-wise, rough number-crunching showed that Maharashtra was poised to get big advantage from the package for Micro Small and medium enterprises (MSMES), subsidies for housing and power sector.
Making a case for the state government to take “bold steps” and raise loans, Fadnavis said the Centre had increased fiscal space for all states by increasing loan limit to five per cent of the GDP. He said this would enable Maharashtra to raise ₹1.60 lakh crore in loans from the market to tackle the pandemic, given that there would be a loss of nearly six months of goods and services tax (GST). “It’s not enough to say we don’t have money so we can’t announce package. If the RBI and the Centre is permitting you, bold decisions must be taken. Several states including Karnataka, Gujarat and even Congress-ruled Chattisgarh governments have announced a package,” he added.
The state BJP unit has sought ₹50,000-crore package from the state for daily-wage earners and farmers.
Overall, Fadnavis claimed the Maharashtra government can access ₹2.70 lakh crore of the Centre’s finances directly or indirectly. “No package has been given to the state. This computation of ₹28,000 crore includes share of the Centre in various schemes and taxes, which is mandatory for the Union government. This has not benefitted the government in any way to tackle the crisis,” said NCP spokesperson and minister Nawab Malik. He also slammed Fadnavis for advising the state to raise loans from the market.
Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said Karnataka had announced a package worth ₹1,610 crore, Gujarat worth ₹670 crore, while Fadnavis had demanded ₹50,000 crore from the state.
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