CHENNAI: Announcing that the State government would vigorously oppose the adverse factors in the terms of reference of Fifteenth Finance Commission, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday rued that vesting the power to decide the degree of populist measures with the commission amounted to infringing upon the powers of the people’s representatives.
Responding to concerns raised by Leader of Opposition M K Stalin, who on Wednesday shot off letters to the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers of 10 States regarding the issue, he told the State Assembly that the government was strongly opposed to considering the 2011 census, the basis for computing tax devolution using population-based weightage factors.
This would enable states that underperform in effective population control measures gain more funds than States like Tamil Nadu.
“If the 2011 census is made the basis for computing tax devolution, states that have failed in effective population control measures will get more funds than Tamil Nadu. So, Tamil Nadu government is strongly opposing this factor,” Panneerselvam said.
Referring to populist schemes, he told the House, “It amounts to infringing upon the powers of the people’s representatives if the powers to decide upon populist schemes are vested with a Central government’s commission.”
The Deputy Chief Minister cried foul over certain factors in the terms of reference, including achievement in implementation of Centre’s flagship schemes, progress made in capital expenditure, eliminating losses of power sector entities and increasing quality of expenditure, direct benefit transfers, finance management and electronic cash transaction for providing performance based incentives to states.
Saying that the State government considered incorporating these irrelevant factors in the terms of reference a wrong attempt, he said that Tamil Nadu would continue to press for removing these factors and devolution of taxes must be computed in a fair manner.
He also promised the House that the issue would be taken up in the interactive sessions of the Fifteenth Finance Commission in a proactive manner.
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Responding to the demand of Opposition Leader MK Stalin that the audit report on the 2015 Chennai floods be made public, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said that the report was prepared in an arbitrary manner without taking into account the data furnished by the State government