Delhi Finance Minister Atishi requested Rs 10,000 crore from the Union government on Friday for the national capital's Infrastructure Development. This came with the claims stating that despite Delhi’s significant tax contributions—Rs 2 lakh crore in income tax and Rs 25,000 crore in central GST—the city has not received any financial support in the past year.
Atishi advocated for the release of additional funds to Delhi before the annual budget presentation of the Union government, stating that the funds could be used for both the improvement of the city's infrastructure and its transportation, power, and road systems.
Claiming that the people of Delhi are the highest income taxpayers, the minister said, "Delhi should get Rs 10,000 crore from the Rs 2.07 lakh crores that people of the city pay as income tax. This amount of Rs 10,000 crore is just 0.25 per cent of the Central government's budget and only 5 per cent of the income tax of Delhiites", news agency PTI reported.
The Monsoon Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on July 22. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on July 23.
'Central Government Should Stop Treating Delhiites Stepmotherly': Atishi
Atishi stated that the Maharashtra government receives Rs 54,000 crores in return for taxes amounting to Rs 5 lakh crores from the Center. Similar to Delhi, Bengaluru pays taxes totaling Rs 2 lakh crore, and the Central government contributes Rs 33,000 crore from its tax reserve.
However, since 2001, the central pool of taxes has only provided the Delhi government with Rs 325 crore from the Center. But even this payment was discontinued last year, and as of right now, the city doesn't get paid a single rupee by the Center, she said.
The minister also said that the Central government should stop treating Delhiites stepmotherly, adding that the city should get its due amount in the Union Budget. "People of Delhi are not begging but demanding their rights. They want their rightful money in this Union Budget so that pace of development in the city increases," she said, as quoted by PTI.
The minister said last year, Delhi residents contributed Rs 35,000 crore in taxes to the city government. This amount was used to provide services like 24-hour free electricity, free treatment at hospitals, and building and maintaining roads and flyovers.
Regarding the stepmotherly treatment of Delhi, she claimed that the Centre received Rs 2.32 lakh crore from Delhi people but did not spend a single rupee on the city. She said that no other city of the world like New York, Tokyo, or London would have faced such injustice as the BJP-led Central government is doing to Delhi.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and South Delhi MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri have accused Atishi of "white lies". "On one hand the Delhi chief minister says his government has no lack of funds, on the other hand, his Finance minister is demanding money from the Centre," he said, as per PTI.
He also claimed that the Centre spends around Rs 1.5 lakh annually for developmental works on the national capital.
BJP secretary Harish Khurana also disputed Atishi’s statements, noting that Central funding to Delhi has increased from Rs 4,258 crore in 2015 to Rs 11,945 crore in 2022.