SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Wednesday said that the Northeastern states will jointly take up the issue of share of tax under the 14th Finance Commission with the centre so that the N-E states do not lose their tag of ‘special category states’.
Pointing out that the 14th Finance Commission has recommended 42 per cent out of the divisible pool as the share of the N-E states in the form of tax devolution the chief minister said that Meghalaya share out of the 42 per cent will come to just 0.642 per cent depending on the population, forest cover and other factors.
The chief minister also pointed out that if the N-E states including Meghalaya were treated at par with the rest of India in terms of devolution of tax, there won’t be any difference between the ‘special category states’ and ‘ordinary states’ as far as share of tax from the centre was concerned.
He, however, mentioned that the highlight of the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission was the greater devolution of financial resources to the states.
The Finance Commission has recommended that the states’ share in the net proceeds of the central tax would be 42 per cent, he said, adding, “The recommendation of tax devolution at 42 per cent is a huge jump from the 32 per cent recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.”
Elaborating on the 42 per cent share of taxes to the states, the chief minister said it was calculated based on certain parameters included the area and population of the states, the per-capita income and also the forest cover.
He said that the 42 per cent share will be calculated out of the total collection of taxes by the union government.
Meghalaya is entitled for 0.642 per cent equal with that of Manipur while Arunachal gets more with 1.7 plus per cent which is comparatively higher compared to the share due to other smaller states of the country, the chief minister said.
Meghalaya received Rs.9,842 crore as total transfer from the 13th Finance Commission while the projected transfer from the 14th Finance Commission is Rs.27,270 crore, an increase of 177 per cent, the chief minister stated.
“Meghalaya’s share of grants-in-aid for revenue deficit are comparatively lower than most of the other N-E states. This is because our revenue gap is much smaller than other states of the region,” he added.
