The 15th Finance Commission has done "injustice" to the southern states by reducing budgetary allocation, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) member K Ram Mohan Naidu alleged in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Participating in the discussion on budget in the Lower House, he said the budgetary allocation under the 15th Finance Commission was lower for southern states.
"It is doing injustice to the southern states. If we are doing good on Sustainable Development Goals, then we should be incentivised," Ram Mohan Naidu said.
Citing the 2011 Census report, he said if delimitation of constituencies takes place on this basis, they will lose representation. "There will be rebellion in the southern states. It will have serious implications," Ram Mohan Naidu claimed as he was cheered by parliamentarians from other southern states.
The 15th Finance Commission, chaired by N K Singh, tabled the first report in Parliament on February 1. The final report with recommendations for the 2021-26 period will be submitted by October 30.
The TDP member said the funds promised under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act carving Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh have still not been allocated.
The Polavaram irrigation project, he said, was the responsibility of the Centre but there was no package for resettlement and rehabilitation.
The Finance Commission is a body that determines how the tax revenues collected by the Union government are distributed among the states. The 15th Finance Commission has been constituted to formulate the distribution of funds among all states for a period of six years.
During her Budget 2020 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “In the spirit of cooperative federalism, I am pleased to announce that we have, in substantial measure, accepted the recommendations of the Commission.”
The 15th Finance Commission has recommended a 1% decrease in the net proceeds of tax collected by the Centre to be shared with states. The Commissioner has said that the reduction is to account for the reorganisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.