New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has refuted Karnataka's claims that the Centre is witholding its share of funds, calling it misleading. She also mad some extremely strong comments, accusing the state's ruling party, the Congress, of trying to shatter the nation's unity.
"The Congress is with the separatists now.... Two years ago, you saw Rahul Gandhi in JNU (Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University). He stood with the tukde-tukde gang. Today, the same slogans have been taken up in Tamil Nadu and the party is not condemning it. Here also the same language has been taken up with such full-page ads," she said.
The minister's rebuttal came after a Karnataka Congress leader slammed the budget, accusing the Centre of depriving south India of its share of developmental funds and using it to buttress north India. The MP, Congress's DK Suresh Kumar, had even said if the issue was not addressed, the south will have to be a "separate country".
Karnataka's claims are full of "factual errors, false monetary claims, misleading statements, and selective mention of certain losses allegedly suffered without mentioning of the gains that have accrued to the State in the 150 Finance Commission (FC) period," the Centre has asserted in a note it shared with the media.
To "inflate its false claim of losses," the state government has even included shortfalls for the next two financial years, the Centre has said.
Calling the figures presented by the state "imagined", the Centre said even according to "these baseless figures", the "actual tax devolution percentage has increased since 2015-16, contradicting the claim of mistreatment by the Centre".
The Congress, which came to power in Karnataka last year, has echoed Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's complaint of being short-changed by the Centre.
Earlier this month, the state Congress had released figures claiming that though Karnataka is the one of the drivers of India's growth story, it is getting little by way of returns.
State Congress spokesperson M Lakshmana said while Karnataka's contribution under corporate and other taxes was to the tune of Rs 2.25 lakh crore for 2023-24, it could only expect Rs 37,252 crore by way of tax devolution.