Jharkhand finance minister seeks restoration of mining cess powers at Delhi meet

THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK

New Delhi, September 19: Jharkhand Finance Minister Radhakrishna Kishore on Saturday placed three key demands before the Central Government, seeking restoration of the state’s authority to levy a cess on mining, compensation for GST-related revenue losses and restoration of the 90:10 funding ratio for the G-Ram-G scheme.

Kishore raised the demands while participating in the two-day “Financing the Journey to a Developed India” conference organised by the Union Ministry of Finance at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 18 and 19.

Addressing the conference, attended by the Union Finance Minister and Finance Ministers from states and Union Territories, Kishore said economically backward states needed special support to help realise the vision of a Developed India by 2047.

He said India could become a developed nation only when its states were financially empowered, and urged the Centre to address the fiscal concerns of states such as Jharkhand.

Jharkhand flags revenue concerns

Kishore said Jharkhand was facing a potential economic loss of ₹20,000 crore to ₹22,000 crore due to Centre-related policies, particularly changes in the mining and taxation sectors.

Advertisement

At the same time, he highlighted the state’s fiscal performance, saying Jharkhand falls in NITI Aayog’s ‘Achiever’ category, while revenue collection remains robust, the fiscal deficit is under control, and capital expenditure remains high.

The Finance Minister also emphasised the need for greater investment in agriculture, irrigation, dairy, fisheries, animal husbandry, health and education to ensure more inclusive development.

The Jharkhand delegation included Finance Secretary Prashant Kumar, Additional Secretary Karan Satyarthi, Joint Secretary Chandrabhushan Prasad, and the Finance Minister’s Private Secretaries Anirban Aich and Narendra Kumar.

Advertisement