South Indian states to prepare joint memo against Finance Commission

The daylong meeting of ministers from Kerala, Karanataka and Andhra Pradesh besides Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Tuesday decided to prepare a joint memorandum to be submitted to the President and others for reframing of the 15th Finance Commission's terms of reference.

The meeting was called by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac for his counterparts from southern states to have a detailed review and critique of the terms of reference.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Rama Krishnudu and other top officials attended, while representatives from Telengana and Tamil Nadu were absent.

"At today's meeting we have decided to prepare a joint memorandum of the manner in which the Finance Commission should go about things and should take into confidence the states.

"We have entrusted (the state-owned) Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation to prepare the draft and by end of this month or early next month, we would meet again to finalise the memorandum and in that meeting to be held in Visakhapatnam, we will invite state governments of other non-BJP ruled states also. After which it would be send to the President and others," Issac told media after the meeting.

The states would even explore taking legal steps also, he added.

The day long workshop was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who also demanded the reframing of the terms of reference, which, he said, was necessary to save the federal structure of the Indian Union.

--IANS

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