Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], September 4 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that a scheme should be named after the Centre if it has a central share in it.
New Delhi [India], August 24 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre why it cannot call an all-party meeting to determine issues relating to the promise of freebies during election campaigns.
New Delhi [India], August 17 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it cannot prevent political parties from making promises during the election campaigns but the question is what constitutes right promises and what is the right way of spending public money.
New Delhi [India], August 12 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia launched an attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleging that he lied about MNREGA, while also adding that the Aam Aadmi Party chief has "made a record of telling lies".
New Delhi [India], August 11 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that promising and distributing freebies by political parties during elections is a "serious issue" and an amount has to be spent on infrastructure etc.
New Delhi Dec 30 PTI The Arvind Kejriwal government on Thursday demanded that the Centre allocate funds to Delhi municipal corporations also as it does in the case of the civic bodies in states Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia raised the demand at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman the Delhi government said in a statement The national capital is the face of the country but today the municipal corporations in Delhi are facing acute shortage of funds and are not able to maintain the cleanliness and development in the capital Therefore funds should be provided to the municipal corporations of Delhi like funds are provided to civic bodies in other states the statement quoted Sisodia as saying in the meeting The Deputy chief minister noted that the 15th Finance Commission allocated grant-in-aid of Rs 436361 crore for the local bodies for 2021-2026 But the local bodies of NCT of Delhi were omitted from this on a technical ground that only states are covered under the scheme This does not help the constitutional mandate of strengthening the local bodies he contended At the meeting Sisodia also demanded that the Union government increase the central assistance for Delhi to Rs 2020 crore in the next budget For the last 21 years Delhi has been getting only Rs 325 crore out of the central tax Now it is necessary that the central government increase it The Central assistance used to be 514 per cent of Delhis budget 21 years ago It has now come down to 09 per cent he said When its comes to giving funds to municipal corporations of Delhi Delhi government is is asked to follow the Finance Commission like other states do But when the Delhi government asks for funds from the Finance Commission it is told that Delhi is a Union territory and thus its share in central taxes cannot be raised he said demanding that this contradiction must be addressed by the Central governmentThe Deputy Chief Minister also urged the Centre to provide funds to the Delhi Development Authority DDA so that it can set up charging points for e-vehicles in the national capital Kejriwal government has brought an e-vehicle policy to remove Delhis pollution But it will be successful only if we make more and more charging points Since DDA has land in Delhi it can set up charging points The central government should support the DDA with funds for the same he said PTI PK PK TIR TIR
New Delhi Dec 30 PTI State governments including Chhattisgarh Kerala Delhi and West Bengal on Thursday pressed for continuation of the GST compensation for another five-year period in view of the financial stress created by the outbreak of the pandemic The demand for extension of the GST cess regime among others was made by several state finance ministers at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here Besides many states also demanded raising the share of the Union government in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes CSS Currently the central government and state government share in some CSS is 6040 while in others it is 7525 GST compensation to states for revenue shortfall resulting from subsuming of local taxes such as VAT in the uniform national tax Goods and Services Tax GST will end in June next year There has been a loss of revenue to states due to the GST tax system the Centre has not made arrangements to compensate the loss of revenue of about Rs 5000 crore to states in the coming year so the GST compensation grant should be continued for the next five years after June 2022 Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said Many states have asked for this We have also asked to extend GST compensation If it is not extended the finances of many states will be in a bad shape Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said after the pre-budget consultation The GST Constitutional Amendment Act provides for the Centre compensating states for five years for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST and during the transition period states revenue is protected at 14 per cent per annum over the base year revenue of 2015-16 GST which subsumed indirect taxes like excise duty service tax and VAT was rolled out on July 1 2017 and the compensation window ends on June 2022 Pointing out that Chhattisgarh has received less share of central taxes by Rs 13089 crore in the Union Budget of the last three years Baghel demanded that the share of central taxes be given to the state completely in the coming year He also demanded that Rs 4140 crore deposited with the Centre at the rate of Rs 294 per tonne on coal mining from coal block companies should be transferred to Chhattisgarh soon Rajasthan Education Minister Subhash Garg said extension of compensation cess window till 2026-27 is a valid demand of states and the Centre should consider it He also demanded reduction in import duty on gold and silver from 10 per cent to 4 per cent Our most significant demand is that the Centres share in centrally-sponsored scheme has gradually reduced and states share has increased Earlier share would be 90-10 and now it is 50-50 or 60-40 our request is that it should go back to 90-10 Garg said Rajasthan also requested that all irrigation and water work projects should be brought under the Centres ambit and declared central schemes West Bengal also pitched for extension of GST compensation for another five years citing two years of difficult time due to COVID-19 COVID crisis was not anticipated when this was fixed said West Bengal Urban Development Municipal Affairs Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya Asked if BJP ruled states too demanded extension she said some of them were in favour of extension For CSS the Centre should increase its share she said adding there are various areas from where the central government can actually augment finance but it is very difficult for states because the area is very short With regards to state borrowing she said that additional borrowing window should be without any condition Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan said he has demanded extension of GST compensation cess regime for at least two years because of COVID-19 We have said at least two years that we lost due to COVID-19 Many states have asked for five years he said He also made a case for raising share of the Centre in the CSS Kerala has also demanded extending GST compensation period by another five years The current period will end in June 2022 States Finance Minister K N Balagopal who participated in the meeting said the broad focus of most states was on having packages to boost economic activities Many states also mentioned about the GST compensation issue the minister told reporters in the national capital Kerala has also demanded increasing the allocation under CSS to compensate the steady decline in the states inter-se share of devolution Besides it has pitched for allowing state-specific grants as recommended by the Finance Commission The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad and other senior officials According to an official statement Union Finance Secretary T V Somanathan welcomed all the participants to the deliberation and highlighted the importance of the consultation meeting Most of the participants thanked the Union Finance Minister for financially supporting their statesUnion Territories during the worst months of pandemic by enhancing borrowing limits providing back to back loans to states and through special assistance for capital expenditure it said The participants also gave numerous suggestions to the Union Finance Minister for inclusion in the Budget speech it said adding the Finance Minister thanked the participants for their inputs and suggestions towards Union Budget 2022-23 and assured them that each proposal will be examined PTI DP RAM CS DP ANU ANU
New Delhi Dec 16 PTI The Union Environment Ministry has released Rs 11 crore to Delhiunder the National Clean Air Programme NCAP to cater to critical gaps in air pollution management officials said FridayThis is the first time Delhi has got funds under NCAP a national-level strategy for a 20 per cent to 30 per cent reduction in PM25 and PM10 concentration by 2024 with 2017 as the base year for comparisonDelhi has been allocated Rs 1874 crore under NCAPThis is the first time it received funds under the programme since it started in 2019The first installmentof Rs 11 crore was released a few days ago an official said The rest of the amount will be released after Delhi submits utilization certificates for up to 60 percent of the first installment he said The NCAP fund will be utilised to meet critical gaps -- wherever there is any inadequacy of funds from other sources The rest of the funding is to be mobilised through convergence of schemesFunds for bigger projects such as management of construction and demolition waste are allocated under the Swachh Bharat Urban programme and other schemes of the central government NCAP covers 132 non-attainment cities which do not meet the prescribed national ambient air quality standards These cities have been identified based on the ambient air quality data obtained during the 2011-2015 period under the National Air Monitoring ProgrammeThe acceptable annual standard for PM 10 and PM25 is 60 micrograms per cubic metre and 40 micrograms per cubic metre respectivelyIn 2017 Delhis annual PM10 average stood at 240 micrograms per cubic metre The targeted PM 10 concentration by 2024 is 168 micrograms per cubic metreOfficials in the Union Environment Ministry said the national capital did not get any funds under NCAP for two years because it had other resources available -- a green cess levied on diesel vehicles above 2000 cc which is deposited with the Central Pollution Control Board CPCB and a pollution tax on commercial vehicles entering Delhi This time fund availability under NCAP has improvedFifty cities are already getting a good amount Rs 4400 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 2217 crore in 2021-22 for pollution management from the Finance Commission Therefore the availability of funds for the remaining 82 cities under NCAP has improved So we decided to give some funds to Delhi too an official had said earlier PTI GVS TIR TIR
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