 "Andhra to pitch for Rs 3-4 lakh crore central grant")
Naidu along with his officials is set to meet commission chairman Yaga Venugopal Reddy in Tirupati on Friday as the latter would visit AP as part of his last leg of visits to the states.
Naidu had already asked his officials to rework the requirement for grants from the Centre. This should not just be to meet the expenditure for building the new capital but also to replicate all those institutions that will be part of Telangana by virtue of being located in Hyderabad.
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Originally, it was estimated Rs 1.2 lakh crore would be needed to build the capital city. Following the chief minister’s instructions, these estimates were revised, officials said.
The chief minister will also be asking for enhancing the devolution of central taxes to 50 per cent from the present 32 per cent. It may be recalled that the previous Congress government in the undivided state had requested the 14th Finance Commission to enhance the devolution of taxes to the states to around 40 per cent.
“This will be our latest stand on the central devolutions as most of the states have been demanding the same proportion of share from the 14th Finance Commission,” a senior government official said.
Telangana government
Incidentally, the Telangana government is presenting its memorandum to the Finance Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday to facilitate the commission officials to fix a date for their visit to Telangana. A senior official of the Telangana government too hinted at making a similar demand regarding the central devolutions.
In addition to this, the Telangana government will also be asking the commission to reduce the weightage given to the per capital income in deciding the devolution of funds to each state. As the per capita income will be higher in Telangana on account of Hyderabad, the present 47.5 per cent weightage given to this particular variable will put the new state in a great disadvantage, according to the officials.
‘Compensate for the loss’
The AP government has been making several demands, including special package for the state not on the existing grounds of backwardness but as a way to compensate the loss it claims to have suffered on account of bifurcation.
“We had not asked for the bifurcation of the state, it was forced on us by the Centre. Because of this we lost Hyderabad along with the revenues it generated. We need incentives to create our own revenue base. They cannot quote the existing criteria meant for the hill states or the northeastern states,” said a senior industry department official.