West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday in Kolkata, said the Centre should give back the states 50 per cent of the taxes collected by it in place of the current 30 per cent.
"The Centre collects all taxes including income tax, property tax, excise duty from the states and it should give 50 per cent of it back", he said. Bhattacharjee, who was addressing a public meeting of the coordination committee of state government employees here said the matter was taken up with the Centre, Planning Commission and Finance Commission.
"The Centre did not oppose whenever we had raised this issue, but they did not give more than 30 per cent of the tax collected from the state", he said. The Chief Minister also said all state governments run by different parties including Congress and BJP were unanimous on this demand. On price rise of essential commodities, he said only the Centre could fix price of some essential items.
"The Centre should take steps on a war footing to curb price hike. I had taken up the issue with the Prime Minister but nothing happened. But they (Centre) claim that they are for the common people (Aam admi ka sarkar)". PTI
