CHENNAI: Bringing to the notice of the 15th Finance Commission the unfair treatment being meted out to the State for over a quarter century in inter-se share in devolution, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday urged the Commission to set right this trend, at least during the ensuing period 2020-2025.
While emphasising the need to compensate the State for its revenue loss due to recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the government has sought a whopping Rs 70,105 crore grants-in-aid and State’s specific needs grants for various sectors.
In the memorandum submitted to the Commission, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami pointed out that Tamil Nadu was the only State which had seen its inter-se share in devolution decline in every single finance commission since the Ninth.
“Criteria have come and criteria have gone, but regardless of which criteria were adopted by which Commission, Tamil Nadu always ended up with a reduced inter se share of devolution. This has led to a crisis of confidence in the polity, and among the people, in the core institutions of fiscal federalism,” underscored the memorandum.
Stating that the 15th Finance Commission needs to keep in mind three critical aspects in formulating its recommendations, the memorandum said, “(There is an) inherent imbalance in the Constitutional scheme where the States have been entrusted with responsibilities far in excess of the financial resources endowed on them. The finance commission as a Constitutional mechanism is intended to correct this basic imbalance.”
The other two aspects include the need for realistic rather than optimistic projection of States’ revenue and expenditure besides adopting pragmatic criteria which encourage developed States to accelerate growth, rather than dampen their spirit, while also stimulating the backward States to bestow more attention on rapid economic and social changes.