(NDTV)
The Centre was never hostile towards Tamil Nadu, Kerala or any other state on ensuring funds flow and had made advance payments and even released funds to foster infrastructure development, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Responding to a criticism from the DMK government that the central government was not disbursing funds or settling its share, she said from 2014 to 2023 the Centre received ₹ 6.23 lakh crore as direct tax (income tax and corporate tax) from Tamil Nadu but gave back ₹ 6.96 lakh crore to the state during the same period.
“I will get the update on the current figures only in March. But as per the available statistics, from 2014 till 2022-23, Tamil Nadu’s direct tax collection was ₹ 6.23 lakh crore. But we gave ₹ 6.96 lakh crore to the state,” she said while speaking at the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra programmed here.
“It is a wrong assumption that this ₹ 6.23 lakh crore is paid only by the people of Tamil Nadu. Among them were Hindi-speaking tax assesses,” the Finance Minister said. She had to put the record straight as there has been a misinformation campaign that the BJP-led union government was not prompt in releasing funds to states. “You are asking to give back your tax money. The Central government has been giving back the Cess, tax or even the GST collected from TN and in addition providing additional funds,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Post-COVID, going beyond the Finance Commission’s recommendations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked her Ministry to provide special capital assistance to the states to foster their infrastructure development, she noted. The Modi government has settled dues amounting to about ₹ 81,645 crore pending since 1996-97 to all states and Tamil Nadu’s share in it was ₹ 3,225 crore.
