NEW DELHI: The first Union Budget under Modi 2.0 did not have much in it for Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government to rave about.The demand for an increase in Delhi’s share of central taxes, considered a long-standing ask of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, wasn’t fulfilled. This, even after Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the run-up to the budget, urging her to consider increasing the national capital’s share of central taxes from Rs 325 crore to Rs 6,000 crore.
Making his displeasure plain, Sisodia issued a statement saying, “Delhi government deserves its legitimate share in Central Taxes to finance various developmental projects. We had requested the Union government a number of times to enhance the allocation to at least Rs 6,000 crore as its share in central taxes, as against Rs 325 crore being released to NCT of Delhi since 2001-02. The budget has not earmarked any funds to local bodies in NCT of Delhi even though we had requested allocation of Rs 1,150 crore as basic and performance grants,” the deputy CM said.
FIGHT OVER FUNDS
AAP government and Centre have often been at loggerheads over allocation of funds
Share in revenue