Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 19: "Generally people believe that Gujaratis are good at business and accurate in maintaining accounts. But the Prime Minister and union home ministers, both of whom belong to Gujarat, have been doling out lies and fake accounts whenever they speak," said former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah noted that Amit Shah, during his visit to Karnataka, had questioned the contribution of the UPA to Karnataka during the last ten years. "He again rattled out a bunch of lies. I will give him the accounts. Let him be patient and respond to what I have said," he challenged.

"The central government provides share of taxes to the state governments every year. It is not in the form of alms. Approximately Rs 2,20,000 crore goes to central government by way of taxes. As much as 42 percent of this amount has to be given to states as per finance commission recommendations. But during the BJP rule, this amount has never been released to the state. During the UPA period, Rs 45,713 crore had been fixed as share from the central taxes, and the state received 47,036 crore. This means we got more money than what was due. During the BJP rule, the 13th and 14th finance commission fixed Rs 2,03,039 crore for Karnataka from 2014 to 2020 but the state got only Rs 1,65,963 crore. For the year 2019-20 too, the state got only Rs 30,919 crore as against actual due of Rs 48.768 crore,” he stated.

Siddaramaiah charged the centre of doing injustice to the state in the matter of GST compensation. He said that the centre has cut down the allocation by nearly Rs 15,000 crore which will deliver a huge blow to the growth of the state. He also expected the state to get a meagre amount this year too.