In the last six years, only half of Telangana’s contribution in the form of taxes was released back to the state, said the state’s Industry and Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) on Sunday through a series of tweets.
"The people of Telangana should know that since 2014, our state's contribution to Centre in the form of taxes is a whopping Rs 2,72,926 crore whereas what Centre has released to Telangana is Rs 1,40,329 crore," tweeted KTR.
"Telangana continues to be a pillar of strength for India," added the minister, who is also Working President of the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
In a series of tweets, KTR cited statistics to highlight the state's growth rate and its achievements on various parameters. KTR made certain remarks in an obvious response to claims by leaders of the BJP about the funds being provided by the Centre to the state.
"Next time before some ignoramuses indulge in chest thumping on how much has been bestowed upon Telangana by Government of India, think before you speak."
#Telangana has been consistently achieving much higher GDP growth rate than the country's average growth rate since past six years
— KTR (@KTRTRS) November 1, 2020
Able leadership, progressive policies & an ear to the ground enabled the state to thrive#TriumphantTelangana#TelanganaEconomy pic.twitter.com/mRRmZkSV0Q
KTR, who is the son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said that Telangana has been consistently achieving much higher GDP growth rate than the country's average growth rate since past six years. "Able leadership, progressive policies & an ear to the ground enabled the state to thrive," read another of his tweets.
He claimed that Telangana's growth has been inclusive and focused on agriculture, industry and services sectors. "While the growth of per capita income of our country between 2014-2020 was at 54.9%, Telangana grew at a whopping 83.9%."
"The growth in GSDP and per capita income were achieved with investments in key infra sectors & increased capital expenditure. At the same time, fiscal prudence was balanced. On Debt-GSDP ratio, Telangana with 22.8 is in the top-5 states with low Debt - GSDP ratio," he added.
Before a series of tweets on Telangana's achievements, KTR tagged a tweet of Kaushik Basu, Professor of Economics, Cornell University, and former Chief Economist of the World Bank.
"Economist EIU lowers India's 2020 growth estimate to (-) 9.8%. India has gone from among 3 fastest growing economies 5 years ago to 7 slowest growing ones in the Economist list. Such a sharp turnaround is difficult to fathom. We need professionals to analyze & to stem the slowdown," Basu tweeted.