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Journalism of Courage
The West Bengal government today demanded a sum of Rs 1.14 lakh crore from the Twelfth Finance Commission. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, along with several of his Cabinet colleagues, met the commission members who are here to access the state’s demands.
The government demanded Rs 88,000 crore from the 11th Finance Commission and it got Rs 34,000 crore, Minister of Finance Ashim Dasgupta told mediapersons later in the day.
Asserting that the state’s share in Central taxes is grossly inadequate, Dasgupta said he had demanded an increase in states’ share of Central taxes. ‘‘We demanded that the divisible portion of the Central taxes be increased from the present 29.5 per cent to at least 50 per cent,’’ he said.
He said that for mobilising the additional resources necessary for giving effect to the proposal of increasing the share of Central taxes to at least 50 per cent, the government suggested that a joint Centre-state initiative for unearthing black money be taken up.
