Bengal demands equal share in central taxes from 16th Finance Commission

Kolkata, Dec 3 (IANS) The West Bengal government on Tuesday demanded an equal share in central taxes raised from the state.

The demand was raised by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a meeting with the representatives of the 16th Finance Commission here.

Currently, based on the 15th Finance Commission's recommendations, 41 per cent of the central divisible tax pool is yearly allocated to the states in 14 instalments over the span of 2021-22 to 2025-26.

The representatives of the 16th Finance Commission reached the state Secretariat in the afternoon and thereafter they had a meeting with a team of 12 state cabinet members headed by the Chief Minister.

After the meeting, the Finance Commission representatives spoke to media persons and confirmed the demand of the West Bengal government for a 50 per cent share in central taxes raised from the state. They also confirmed that most of the state government representatives they had meetings with on this issue have raised the same demand. They said that they would intimate the higher authorities on the demand of the state government.

Meanwhile, sources aware of the proceedings of the meeting said that during the interaction the Chief Minister also raised points of the unpaid central funds under various centrally sponsored schemes to the West Bengal government.

"The Chief Minister pointed out that despite several communiqués to the Union government a massive amount of Rs 1.76 lakh crores of central dues is still pending," said a member of the state cabinet who refused to be named.

However, the representatives of the 16th Finance Commission made it clear that this particular matter is not within their jurisdiction.

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