Patna: Criticising BJP for celebrating the budgetary hike of 10 per cent of state's share in central taxes, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the percentage hike for Bihar was among the lowest three and he would soon call an all party meet to fight the “injustice”.
“The budget announcement will serve BJP as a vote catching machine. The fact is that for Bihar the percentage growth in share of central taxes is among the lowest three,” Kumar told reporters emerging from ‘Janata ke Darbar me Mukhya Mantri' programme.
“After Tamil Nadu which will witness only 25.7 per cent growth in its share of central taxes and Telangana 30.9 per cent, Bihar is at the third position with a hike of 37.3 per cent,” Kumar said.
“The percentage share for Gujarat will be 57.7 per cent, Haryana 60.3 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 64.7 per cent, Jharkhand 73.9 per cent, Punjab 75.9 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir 80.6 per cent and Chhattishgarh 93.9 per cent,” he said.
Kumar said he would soon call an all party to explain them the scenario and request them to rise above party politics and fight against “injustice”. Kumar, who had earlier thanked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for announcing that Bihar and West Bengal would get special financial assistance like Andhra Pradesh, said “We are waiting to see what they do in this regard and how much additional money the state gets to compensate the huge loss.”
Kumar said as per 13th Finance Commission recommendations Bihar recieved 10.9 per cent share of total central taxes in 2014-15 which would come down to 9.6 per cent in 2015-16 fiscal - a slide of 1.3 per cent.
Highlighting drawbacks of the union Budget based on recommendations of 14th Finance Commission, Kumar said by abandoning the central share in many essential central schemes like food law, midday meal, ICDS and National Health Mission extra pressure has been put on states to fund these programmes from its own limited resources.
He said he had drawn the attention of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during a meeting on February 26 that by doing away with BRGF (Backward Region Grant Fund), which is part of Bihar Reorganisation Act that guided separation of Jharkhand from it in 2000, would be violated.
“I told him BRGF was part of Bihar Reorganisation Act drawn during the rule of Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” he said, adding the state might knock the doors of the Supreme Court against this violation.
