The Himachal Pradesh government has sought a special financial package of Rs 2,500 crore from the Centre and also an early assessment of the adverse impact of 13th Finance Commission on the state so that compensation for it could be ensured at the earliest. The demand was raised by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal who was speaking during the pre-Budget meeting of finance ministers of states at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday. He said: In order to estimate the adverse impact of 13th Finance Commission on special category states,a group under the advisor of Planning Commission was constituted to explore a reasonable way to handle the plan financing problems. The group was to submit its recommendations on December 31,2010,but the date has been postponed to March 31,2011. The CM said this would rule out the possibility of Himachal getting benefit of their recommendations in the Union Budget 2011-12 and the Centre should immediately intervene. The state also reiterated its demand to get permission for levy of generation tax of 10 paise per unit on hydro electric projects. This was part of recommendations of the C Rangarajan Committee and would generated an additional annual revenue of Rs 250 crore. Dhumal also requested the Union government to sanction an untied special plan assistance of Rs 1,500 crore to fund the State Annual Plan 2011-12.
