State Planning Board vice-chairman B. Vinod Kumar has expressed concern that the BJP-led Central Government is moving forward towards a unitary government rather than a federal one in violation of the provisions enshrined in the Constitution.
He lamented that not only political issues, but financial issues have also become bone of contention between the Centre and the States in recent times. This could be seen from the fact that the Centre was collecting taxes in the name of cess on various items. But the revenue thus generated was not being distributed to the States as the funds were being utilised by the Centre for its own programmes.
Moreover, the XV Finance Commission suggested that the Union Government constitute a committee to review the FRBM Act which recommended increase in FRBM limits and borrowings from open market. “But the Union Government has chosen only few recommendations that suited it and not the others,” he said. Mr. Vinod Kumar was delivering lecture to commemorate Acharya Kothapally Jayashankar’s birth anniversary on the theme “Centre-State relations: Futute of Federalism”. The lecture was organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies.
