Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi and urged him to expedite release of outstanding balance compensation of Rs2,160 crore to the State for the revenue loss due to phase-out of Central Sales Tax (CST).
He also sought implementation of earlier decision to transfer power to states in case of CST. The finance minister assured him that remaining compensation for CST loss will be released to the state in two instalments.Apprising the finance minister about difficulties faced by beneficiaries due to lack of banks in rural areas, Singh urged the Centre to help commercial banks to expand their banking network in Chhattisgarh so that social welfare schemes are better implemented, benefitting the locals.
The Chief Minister also appealed to relax the uniform norm of borrowing ceiling for Chhattisgarh and stated that the state has been planning to start various ambitious schemes for which funds would be required from financial institutions.He also demanded sanction to inclusion of Balod and Gariaband districts under BRGF programme. Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Principal Secretary to CM Aman Kumar Singh, Resident Commissioner BV Uma Devi and OSD Vikram Sisodia were present at the meeting.