Kerala Gets Tax Share, Not Financial Aid: FM Balagopal

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 1 (PTI) Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Friday rejected media reports that the union government had released financial assistance to the state, and said all it got were funds that were due to the state as tax share and settlement of IGST.

Balagopal said Rs 2,736 crore tax share and Rs 1,386 crore settlement of IGST were made available recently to the state.

"These are tax allocations that are normally made available to the state in installments under the budget," Balagopal said in a Facebook post.

He said such fund transfers being reported as financial assistance is "misleading"

He was responding to certain media reports suggesting that the central government has provided "financial aid" to the state which has been reeling under severe financial crisis due to alleged policies of the union government.

Balagopal said Rs 2,736 crore was given as the share of the tax amount collected from the state by the central government. "Not just Kerala but all other states have got a proportionate share," he said.

He said the IGST levied on inter-state movement of goods and services goes to the central exchequer. "This is distributed among the states. Allowance of IGST share due to the state is also not central assistance," Balagopal clarified.

The Centre had said that it would give permission to Kerala to borrow around Rs 13,000 crore, if the petition against it was withdrawn from the Supreme Court, he said, adding, "The Centre has blocked the fund which could have been used for the increased expenditure in the months of February and March," Balagopal added.