Nirmala Sitharaman Slams Talk Of Injustice To State

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today that there was no truth in the Telangana government's contention that injustice was done in the 2019-20 budget to states which accounted for greater tax collections that had been re-distributed to them.

Speaking to the media in Hyderabad, she said that the reaction of the Telangana government to the union budget had come to her notice. While admitting that Telangana indeed had high economic growth and had contributed more in tax collection to the Centre that had been given back to it in tax revenues, she said that the reduction of the state's share in taxes from 42% to 41% was not fully the Centre's decision, and that the Centre had just followed the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission in this matter.

She also said that keeping good relations with all the states was the policy of the NDA government.

Sitharaman said that she was touring the important cities in the country to elicit the views of the representatives of trade and industry on the budget, and had come to Hyderabad as part of it.