Telangana's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Wednesday found fault with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her statement in the Parliament about the funds given to the state and said the nation needs to know what Telangana gives to the government of India.
TRS working President K.T. Rama Rao tweeted on Wednesday night that he was pained by the condescension in the statement of the Finance Minister in the Parliament that the government of India has given funds to Telangana.
"People of Telangana and the nation need to know what Telangana gives to GOI in the form of taxes and what we get in return. Hope the irony is not lost on you FM Ji," added KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known.
KTR, a key minister in the cabinet of his father K. Chandrashekhar Rao, posted a statement, giving details of what Telangana gave to the Union government and what the Union government gave back to Telangana during the last six years.
According to the statement, between 2014-15 and 2018-19, the government of India collected Rs 2,72,926 crore as taxes from Telangana but gave back only Rs 1,12,854 crore to the state. The statement put the balance at Rs 1,60,072 crore.
Replying to a question by a TRS MP in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Sitharaman had said that the Union government released tax devolution funds to the tune of Rs 85,013 crore in six years.
KTR had earlier slammed the Union government for their granting a meagre budget of Rs 889 crore in the 2020-21 union budget. He had expressed disappointment that the Centre had denied funds for the state's flagship projects, like Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha, and reduced the budget to the state from Rs 1,037 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 889 crore in the current budget.