Modi8217;s anti-Gujarat list sent to Centre

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave a memorandum,listing host of issues the state has with the Centre.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave a memorandum,listing host of issues the state has with the Centre,to union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his meeting with the later here.

In the memorandum Modi has said that Gujarat was yet to get Rs 2,244 crore rebate on Central Sales Tax CST from the centre pending for the last thee years as was assured by the union government to the state for funding revenue deficit.

State has also suffered a loss of Rs 2,000 crore due to sudden change in the norms for crude oil royalty from 8220;market-driven price formula8221; to 8220;discounted price formula8221; since 2008,he said.

Referring to the contribution of Gujarat Maritime Board GMB ports in the foreign trade of the country,the memorandum said the board used to get exemption from income tax under the Central Finance Act,but the burden was imposed in 2008.

Modi alleged that Centre was doing injustice to Gujarat in allocation of natural gas. Gujarat has to compulsorily buy the gas from Petronet LNG at a higher price,despite being the only state to have laid 1,650-km long gas distribution pipeline network across 16 districts,while other states are provided gas at a much cheaper rate from the Reliance8217;s KG Basin,he added.

He demanded a minimum allocation of 5-mmscmd gas to the state-promoted Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation GSPC from KG Basin.

The memorandum also drew attention of the finance minister to the problem of lakhs of cotton growers of Gujarat following imposition of steep licence fee on export of raw cotton from May 21,2010,while lifting ban on export,indirectly discouraging export.

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Gujarat has demanded immediate withdrawal of the licence fee on cotton as the state produces one-third of cotton and the farmers here are the most hit,the memorandum said.

The memorandum also demanded withdrawal of Income-Tax on urban co-operative banks imposed since April 1,2009,as lakhs of poor and middle class deposit their savings in such banks in the state.

Mukherjee after the meeting said that he has received the memorandum and will to go through it.