TRS MPs Ask Centre To Release Arrears to Telangana

TRS MPs Nama Nageshwar Rao and Kotha Prabhakar Reddy today asked the Centre to immediately release the pending GST arrears to Telangana.

They slammed the Modi government for the "deliberate delay" in the release of the funds despite repeated requests.

During Question Hour in Parliament, the MPs expressed concern over the delay in releasing Rs 5,000 crore to the state under GST and IGST. Rao told the House that repeated appeals from the state had been ignored by the Centre. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had even personally written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, he said. "However, our pleas were deliberately ignored by the Modi government," he claimed.

The MPs urged the Speaker to see that the Centre took note of their appeal and released the funds. Non-release of the funds and cuts in budget allocations to the state would hamper the state's welfare and development programs, they said.

Responding to that, Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said that the funds would be released soon. The Centre would pay the GST arrears to the states in two installments, he added.

The House also witnessed pandemonium by the opposition parties shouting slogans against the Centre seeking a debate on the controversial CAA and NRC.