States should not be penalised by Centre: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: States should not be penalised at the cost of Central government’s interests, said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He reviewed the final document to be submitted to the 15th Finance Commission on Friday at his residence at Undavalli. Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and others participated in the meeting.

Making it clear that the States did not get due share from the common pool despite the Fourteenth Commission’s recommendations, the Chief Minister asked that the Fifteenth Finance Commission to protect the States.

Speaking on the injustice done to AP from last five years, he said that even after four years of bifurcation the state did not overcome from the financial problems.

He said that the Fifteenth Finance Commission must do justice and extend helping hand to AP. The bifurcation was done in an unfair manner, where the revenue and properties were shared on the basis of geography whereas the debts were shared on population basis. There by the residuary State became most disadvantaged and vulnerable, he explained.

Even after completion of four years, the Central government did not implement the AP Reorganisation promises. Stating that the statistics for the 13 districts of AP was not available before bifurcation, the calculations and suggestions of the 14th Finance Commission were proved irrelevant and wrong with respect to the new State, Chandrababu Naidu said.

He explained that the revenue from service sector is almost nill in the new State. The industrial sector revenue is also limited and not good enough to meet the demand of present needs.

On the other hand, the economy of the State is largely dependent on primary sector, that is agriculture, he said. The Chief Minister added that this was forcing the State into further problems.

In any State, the revenue from industrial and service sectors must be higher than agriculture, then only the States or country could sustain, he pointed out.

Because of this reason, the per capita income of AP was lesser than the neighbouring States, Chandrababu Naidu said. The Chief Minister said that AP did not get the revenue as estimated by the Fourteenth Finance Commission, instead it was pushed into debts.

He said that after bifurcation, revenue from service sector in Telangana increased by 8 per cent whereas it was not even 2 per cent rise in residuary AP.

Despite all odds the State has been achieving double-digit growth, thanks to the efforts being consistently put by the State government for the last four years, he said.

He said that though the government has been striving and putting hard work for development, the structural setbacks became major hurdles in the growth.

The Chief Minister said that the State achieved commendable growth in agriculture sector, but not sufficient growth in industrial sector. In the service sector, AP was facing hardship.

The responsibility of laying good path for development of the State will be on the Fifteenth Finance Commission only, Chandrababu Naidu said.
He said that for the mistakes of the Central government, the public in the State should not be put into troubles.

Naidu said, “I said that for construction of a city like Hyderabad, it would take at least a couple of decades. I asked them to give Rs 5 lakh crore for construction of State capital Amaravati.”

Naidu said that the Finance Commission must help the State to avoid unnecessary burden on the public, till it crosses the structural problems. He said that despite facing huge financial problems, the State government has completed 58 per cent of Polavaram irrigation project. It has also inaugurated 12 priority projects while another 40 irrigation projects are under progress.

He asked the Finance department officials to include all these details in the report to be submitted to the Fifteenth Finance Commission. AP demands 1991 Census as base year for ToR: The Chief Minister said that the terms of reference of the Finance Commission must be based on 1991 Census but not 2011 Census.

He said that better performing States would be penalised if they implement this provision. He explained that AP effectively reduced the growth of population. The officials explained about the revenue deficit grants, vertical devolution, horizontal devolution, financial status of various states and other issues.

The Finance Commission will visit AP on October 9, 10 and 11. In this meeting, AP Planning Board vice-chairman C Kutumbarao, Finance Secretary Ravichandra, other officials including Satishchandra, Sai Prasad, Rajamouli and others participated.