The State Government’s allegation that the NDA Government has been slashing Central aides and tax transfers to it has been substantiated by a report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published recently.
The RBI report, “Report on State Finance: A study of Budget of 2015-16” has revealed that the Odisha Government was forced to take a loan of Rs3,000 crore for developmental works in 2015-16 as the Centre slashed assistances under different schemes.
The report stated that though the Union Government has increased its tax share from 32 per cent to 42 per cent, it has, on the other hand, has cut grant-in-aids drastically in the Budget. According to it the amount of slashed Cental fund amounts to 0.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
However, the Centre has claimed that Odisha has got more funds as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.
However, the report revealed that while the commission had recommended a total tax of Rs27,001 crore for Odisha in 2015-16, the Centre had given Rs23,753.75 crore only. Similarly, the Centre has provisioned to give tax of Rs26,567 crore against the commission’s recommendation of Rs31,158 crore. The Centre has slashed assistances by Rs3425.25 crore in 2015-16 and Rs4590.44 crore for the current year. In view of this fiscal deficit, the RBI has given its opinion in favour of taking loan from the open market by the State Government. Commenting on the report, BJD spokersperson Pratap Deb said the State Government never makes a false claim. “The RBI Report has provided it.”