Badal demands more share from revenue collection from union government

Badal demands more share from revenue collection from union government

Hoshiarpur: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has said that the Union government must impartially disburse the taxes collected from states in order to ensure the overall development of the country.

Speaking to media here on Saturday the Chief Minister said that it was the need of the hour to revise t he formula for devolution of Central funds because the states needed more funds for their primary developmental needs. He said that they had been demanding that the states should be given at least 50% share in taxes collected from them adding that the allocation of funds to the states should in fact be made growth dependent, so as to encourage the states to perform better.

Laying stress on the need for strengthening federalism by increasing devolution of Central funds to states from the present 32% to 50% along with change in the devolution criteria, he said that if more funds were placed at the disposal of the states an era of unparalleled development could be seen in them.

The Chief Minister categorically said that by giving the central funds the Union government was not doling out anything special to the states rather it was duty bound to repay back their share from the revenue collected in form of various taxes from the states. Assailing the Union government for ignoring the welfare of people by formulating the policies autocratically without concerning the state governments, the Chief Minister said the tendency of the Centre government to usurp the powers of the state governments was very dangerous as it not only violated the fundamental principles of democracy but also weakened the Federal structure of the country.

Blaming the successive Congress led Union governments of meting out step motherly treatment with Punjab, the Chief Minister said that these governments have irrelevantly meddled in social, political, economic and even religious matters of the state. He said that the result of such discriminatory policies of the Congress was that Punjab which was once considered as most prosperous and advanced state of the country has now lagged behind in many sectors.

Training his guns against the Union government, the Chief Minister said that a wave of resentment was brewing amongst countrymen against the misrule of the UPA government.