UPA govt refused to hike Karnataka’s share from 30% to 40%: BJP

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP on Friday placed a resolution in the Assembly condemning the attempt's to point fingers at the Centre by the state government and false implication regarding the distribution of taxes and grants.

“We all must show our commitment for Karnataka’s development. But we must also strongly criticise the politically motivated and wrong statistics to portray the Centre in bad light. We strongly condemn the resolution adopted by the government on the economy,” said Leader of Opposition (LoP) R. Ashoka, who presented the resolution in the Assembly.

He said that the government must stop the attitude of blaming the Centre to cover up its failures to ensure the economic growth due to poor tax collection.

The resolution reads: “It has been over 75 years that India became a democratic republic and most of this time, Congress was in power. For many years, Karnataka’s share was just 20 per cent and a long fight had to be undertaken to hike the percentage to 30 per cent.”

It said that the Congress-led UPA government had refused to hike the state's share from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

“The Congress that declined to raise objections against the UPA government for the more percentage to the states for development has raised this topic again only for the sake of politics,” the resolution reads.

It said that a few days after the BJP-led NDA government was formed, the policy of Cooperative Federalism was adopted and hiked the state's share from 32 per cent to 42 per cent.

“GST law has been framed as per the constitution. The GST compensation had been decided based on 14 per cent economic growth of the state for five years. As per 14 per cent financial growth, Karnataka had received Rs 1,06,258 crore as compensation from the Central government. Although it ended in 2022, the state government was trying to give a fake account by including the year 2023-24,” the resolution reads.

It said that the Central government had been following the system of DBT to the bank account of the beneficiaries of the various Central government sponsored schemes.

“Cess and Surcharge has been existing since the days of the Congress government and the Centre has the power to levy tax only for certain programs. Karnataka had received Rs 1,06,258 crore as the GST compensation, Cess and the Surcharge,” it reads.

It said that despite not achieving 14 per cent economic growth, giving 14 per cent compensation to the states helped to bring stability in growth.

On Thursday, Minister for Law, Justice, Human Rights, Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation and Tourism H.K Patil had presented the resolution which said that the people of Karnataka have noticed that, from the last decade, many instances of bias in allocation of funds by Central government, in providing grants recommended by finance commissions, sanctioning central share as per drought relief norms.

“Along with the idea that the underdeveloped and poor states shall get more funding, the Central government is striking the roots of progressive states like Karnataka by not following the principles of the federal system and by making justice to the states that have made the best progress,” the resolution read.

It said that the House unanimously resolves to urge the Central government to take strong stand of equal distribution and non-discriminatory allocation of financial resources in the interest of the citizens and that no injustice shall be done in the interest of the people of Karnataka as well as its development.