Reiterating its demand for greater share of GST devolution to Karnataka, the Congress on Saturday released a “white paper” to highlight what it termed as ‘’injustice’’ being rendered by the Centre to the State.
Addressing a press conference in the city, the KPCC spokesperson M. Lakshmana said that Karnataka was the backbone of the emerging growth story of India and was one of the drivers of the nation’s economy.
He said the State’s contribution under corporate and other taxes was to the tune of ₹2.25 lakh crore for 2023-24 against which only ₹37,252 crore was expected by way of tax devolution.
The State’s revenue generation and contribution to the Centre through GST was ₹1.4 lakh crore against which only ₹13,005 crore was expected, said Mr. Lakshmana. The State’s contribution through customs and excise was around ₹30,000 crore while an additional ₹30,000 crore was being contributed by the State by way of petrol and diesel tax, he added and rued that Karnataka was likely to receive ₹50,257 crore in all despite generating about ₹4 lakh crore through various taxes.
Mr. Lakshman said the State should have received ₹1 lakh crore from the Centre but it was being deprived of nearly ₹50,000 crore.
‘’In terms of revenue generation through various taxes, Karnataka was next only to Maharashtra, and yet the Centre was adopting a step-motherly attitude towards the State’’, said Mr. Lakshmana.
The Congress also lashed out at the BJP MPs of the State for their failure to secure drought relief from the Centre. Mr. Lakshmana said though the loss has been pegged at ₹35000 crore by a central team, not a single paisa has been released so far.
The BJP also came under flak for levelling baseless allegations against the Congress and the spokesperson said that within seven months of coming to power five major schemes promised in the election manifesto, have been implemented.
Responding to the BJP-JD(S) tie-up for the forthcoming Parliamentary elections Mr. Lakshmana said they will not cross the single-digit mark. Against 28 let them win atleast eight if that was possible, he added. Mysuru district rural president B.J. Vijaykumar, city unit president R. Murthy and others were present.
