TN urges Centre to release pending dues under 14th Finance

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday urged the Centre to release funds, including performance grant, due to the state under the 14th Finance Commission, saying it would help in providing amenities such as water supply and sanitation for the public.

State Municipal Administration Rural development Minister S P Velumani called on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi and presented a memorandum seeking release of the funds.

The memorandum, a copy of which was released to media here, said an amount of Rs 2,029.22 crore was due towards the performance grant for the years 2017-18 to 2019-20 while Rs 4,345.57 crore had been pending as basic grant for 2019-20 under the 14th Finance Commission.

The funds would greatly benefit in providing the amenities such as water supply, sanitation, waste management, street lights and also to settle various utility bills of urban local bodies, the minister said in the memorandum.

Velumani said the release of finance commission grant in the past paved the way for providing quality services to people and helped local bodies in discharging their basic duties.

The Minister extended his gratitude to Sitharaman for reducing the GST rate from 18 per cent to 12 per cent on machined job works and from 12 per cent to 5 per cent on wet grinders.

Referring to the concerned notification, he said if there was any variation as a new product, it will still attract 18 per cent GST under machined job works.

"The purpose of reducing 12 per cent has not served good for majority of the Small and Micro Industries. I kindly request the Minister to treat all machined job orders to be taxed at same level of 12 per cent", he said.

Velumani also requested the Sitharaman to reduce GST rates for machined job orders from 12 per cent to 5 per cent to benefit micro and small scale industries.