Budget 2016: Rs 758 crore for Delhi; no allocation for MCD

NEW DELHI: The Centre today allocated 758 crore to Delhi government for financial year 2016-17 while the share in central taxes and duties for the capital remained unchanged despite AAP governemnt's demand for a hike.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia slammed the Modi government, saying the Union Budget has "neglected" the interest of Delhiites.

In the budget, Delhi's share in central taxes has been kept at Rs 325 crore, static since 2001-02, though the AAP government had demanded that it be raised to Rs 5,000 crore.

"The Budget of Delhi has increased from Rs 8,739 crore in the year 2001-02 to Rs 41,129 crore in 2015-16, whereas the share in central taxes has remained frozen at Rs 325 crore since 2001-02 despite the fact that Delhiites give 1.68 lakh crore to the Centre every year in income-tax," Sisodia told reporters here.

Rs 412.99 crore has been proposed as central assistance to the city government for 2016-17 against Rs 394.98 crore allocated in 2015-16.

Sisodia said the NDA government has not earmarked any funds to Delhi municipal corporations although the civic bodies had requested for allocation of at least "Rs 1000 crore" as basic and performance grants.

The Centre has proposed Rs 15 crore for reimbursement to Delhi government in the next financial year for paying about Rs 76 crore as enhanced compensation to 1984 riot victims.

Apart from this, the NDA government has allocated Rs 5 crore as non-plan grant for the Delhi Disaster Response Fund which is "negligible", he said.

"It is unfortunate since Delhi falls in high seismic zone and it was hoped that the central government will bear this important fact in mind while making allocations under this head, but that eventually did not happen," Sisodia said.

At the pre-budget consulations with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Sisodia had demanded Rs 4,000 crore from the central government for purchase of 5,000 additional buses.

Since the Aam Aadmi Party has come to power, the BJP-led Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government have been at loggerheads on a range of issues including transfer and postings of officers.