Release finance commissions’ dues : KTR writes to Nirmala Sitharaman
By Newsmeter Network Published on 19 Sep 2020 2:31 PM GMTHyderabad: Telangana minister for municipal administration and urban development K.T. Rama Rao has written a letter to Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman regarding delay in release of funds to urban local bodies in Telangana.
He said that the state has not received any money for the urban local bodies as recommended by the Finance Commission. “The 15th Finance Commission has recommended that the grants amounting to Rs 468 crore to million
plus city i.e. Hyderabad and Rs 421 crore to non-million plus cities in the state should be released in two equal installments in June and October, 2020. While the grant to million plus cities is yet to be released, grant to
non-million plus cities has been split into four installments, in contravention of the recommendation of the Finance Commission, and first installment amounting to Rs 105.25 crore has been released on May 19,” K.T. Rama Rao reminded in the letter.
He also said that the non-release of statutorily mandate Finance Commission grants and the pandemic-induced shortfall in the state’s own revenues has handicapped the state.
“The state was also denied its rightful entitlement in the grants to urban local bodies recommended by the 14th Finance Commission. While the Commission recommended an unconditional basic grant of Rs 2,711.12 crore, the amount released by the Centre was Rs 2,502.90 crore which was a shortfall of Rs 208.22 crore. Though the state had fulfilled all the conditions attached to the performance grant of Rs 677.79 crore, the amount released to
the state was only 235.81 crore which is a shortfall of Rs 441.98 crore,” Mr Rao pointed out.
He added the state was denied Rs 650.20 crore of the statutory grant to urban local bodies, though the full amount was released to some other states.
He asked the Union finance minister to arrange for the immediate release of all the pending dues, a total of Rs 1,433.95 crore, which includes the overdue first installment of the grant to million-plus cities (Rs. 468 crore),
the balance of second installment of the grant to non-million-plus cities (Rs 315.75 crore) and the pending statutory grants recommended by the 14th Finance Commission (Rs 650.20 crore).