Deeply hurt by the Centre's ignorant attitude, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu shot out his grief and expressed his feelings in the form of an open letter briefing about the problems that Centre is not dealing. "The 14th Finance Commission's increased devolution to states is a welcome move. It is good that the Commission has been considerate about states and increased the devolution to 42%.However, the Finance Commission has not addressed the development needs of Andhra Pradesh after unscientific bifurcation and has denied the state a level-playing field.
The Finance Commission has not made any specific award for Andhra Pradesh, though it acknowledged that Andhra Pradesh has suffered fiscal damage as a result of reorganization. It has treated Andhra Pradesh on par with other States, both for the purpose of tax devolutions and revenue deficit grant. The Commission's estimates clearly indicate that Andhra Pradesh would be the only state in the country (other than the special category States) that would continue to have revenue deficit even in financial year 2019-2020 while several other states will close the year with a surplus budget.
The award of Rs 2,06,819.24 crores over the next five-year period (FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-2020) only addresses the revenue expenditure needs (administration and maintenance costs of governance) of the state and does not take into consideration the development challenges of an agrarian state that does not have adequate space for revenue elasticity, lacks a capital city and the ecosystem for development and, is devoid of major growth engines. This clearly illustrates that Andhra Pradesh, despite being 8th largest state in terms of population, would be at the bottom (compared to other states), during the next five years in terms of fiscal performance.
I sincerely hope that the Central Government will take note of the concerns of the people of Andhra Pradesh and take comprehensive measures in the upcoming Union Budget for creating a level-playing field and enable the state to catch up with the national development momentum in the spirit of cooperative federalism." Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh So, what do you think will the Centre respond like? Will the Centre act smart or will it bounce back?
