BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Friday demanded financial assistance of `740 crore from the Centre for Nabakalebara in July, 2015.
The issue was raised by Finance Minister Pradip Amat at the pre-budget meeting convened by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at New Delhi. Though the State Government has raised the demand several times, the Centre is yet to release any fund for the festival.
Amat also reiterated the demand for adequate compensation to the States for reduction of Central Sales Tax (CST) rate from four to two per cent. He said there should be suitable amendment of the relevant Acts before the introduction of Goods Services Tax (GST) for addressing the genuine concerns of the States.
Stating that Central funds for critical infrastructure projects including Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and PMGSY have gone down, Amat said adequate funds should be allocated for such schemes in the Budget.
He also demanded implementation of the National Waterway-5 in a time bound manner to link Paradip and Dhamra ports, opening of brick and mortar bank branches in all unbanked gram panchayats by 2019 and loan from commercial banks to fishermen, dairy farmers and weavers at par with agricultural activities.