FM Sitharaman: 'Karnataka received Rs 2.96 lakh crores under PM Modi compared to Rs 81,791 crores during UPA'

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that a lot of misinformation was being spread that the Centre was not giving due funds to Karnataka. She said the central transfers to Karnataka had increased substantially. "This is a point on which you have a lot of misinformation in Karnataka, inclusive of the government. The government of today keeps telling people that the central government doesn't give Karnataka its due. Completely false... I am willing to answer but it is the wrong advertisement which the current government in Karnataka keeps doing, which I am sorry is not helping anybody," the finance minister said in a press conference in Bengaluru. 

Between 2004 and 2014, when the UPA government was in power in Delhi, Karnataka received only Rs 81,791 crores over ten years, Sitharaman said. "Between 2014 and 24, ten years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka received Rs 2,95,818 crores. Grants in aid Rs 60,779 crores under the UPA, and in ten years under PM Modi Rs 2,39,955 crores."

The Karnataka government has, in the past, claimed that the Centre withheld its share of revenue and did not transfer its dues. However, the Centre has each time countered its claims with data. 

In March this year, Sitharaman had rubbished the Karnataka government's claim that the Centre was not releasing its due share of 'special grants' as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission. She denied that there was any recommendation by the Finance Commission.

"Karnataka government claims that Rs 5,495 crore special grant was not released to Karnataka and this is totally false. The Finance Commission did not, in its final report, recommend any such special grant," the Finance Minister claimed.

Sitharaman's statement came a day after Karnataka filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court requesting a direction to the Centre to immediately release grants under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state, which was reeling under acute drought.

In February, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy D K Shivakumar, and Congress MLAs staged a demonstration in New Delhi alleging that the Centre was apathetic towards Karnataka’s woes and was not releasing its due share of funds. 

"Every penny that is due to Karnataka, every paisa that is due to Karnataka, is given, and given on time," Sitharaman had said during a talk organised by Thinkers Forum. 

According to the Finance Minister, tax devolution increased under Prime Minister Modi between 2014 and 2024 by 258%, which is 3.5 times more compared to the 10 years during the previous UPA rule. In these 10 years of BJP rule, the grants-in-aid have also increased to 273%, which is 3.7 times more than what it was in the previous 10 years, she claimed.

The Finance Minister said that between 2004 and 2014, the money received by Karnataka per year was Rs 81,795 crore, which went up to Rs 2,93,226 crore from 2014 to 2024. "Nobody's boasting that we've given this much or anything, but to be wrongly alleged, accused that you're not giving money due to Karnataka, I'm sorry, please look at the figures, look at the dates when the money was received and then tell us something which is specific and right, so that I can respond and I will respond," Sitharaman said.

(With inputs from PTI)