State to face financial crisis if central taxes is reduced — Patil

The State’s share in Central taxes has been cut down to 4.632 per cent from earlier 6.126 per cent while the backward states who have failed to maintain financial discipline have been rewarded with more funds, he expressed.

States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat will also face similar situation, he said and disclosed that Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh would soon write to the affected states and stress the need to raise voice against the injustice meted out to the progressive states. The government will also draw the attention of the Prime Minister and the Union Finance Minister towards the issue, he said.

Replying to several allegations levelled by the Opposition members, Patil said the DF Government had taken several steps to contain the fiscal deficit to Rs 5,000 crore. The collection of Sales Tax in the first three months of the current year has increased by 31 per cent as compared to the same in the previous year. The Government is intending to raise over Rs 13,000 crore by way of Sales Tax this year, he added.

Regarding the public sector enterprises (PSEs), most of whom are incurring heavy losses, Patil said the Government had appointed a committee under former chief secretary Sharad Upasani for restructuring or closing down the public sector enterprises. Further, a special officer would be appointed to probe the irregularities in functioning of the officers and office-bearers of the corporations during the last five years.

He also announced that the Government was contemplating to impose heavy taxes on gymkhanas and clubs that had sprang up in Mumbai during the last few years and charging exorbitant fees to its members. In a bid to augment the revenue, the Government is also considering to increase the user charges like court fee and charity commissioner fees.

Earlier, initiating the debate, Prakash Javdekar (BJP) alleged that the DF Government had failed to deliver the goods during the last nine months after coming to power. The ruling parties had strongly criticised the alliance government’s decision to borrow funds from market for developmental activities but they were following the same policy after coming to power, he pointed out.