Thomas Isaac Demolishes Amit Shah’s Claims on Finance Commission Award to Kerala

Kerala's Finance Minister Dr. TM Thomas Isaac has demolished the claims made by BJP national President Amit Shah in a recent speech regarding the money allocated to Kerala as part of the Finance Commission awards.

Amit Shah had claimed that while the 13th Finance Commission appointed by the UPA-I, which was also supported by the CPI(M), had allocated Rs. 45,393 crore to Kerala, the 14th Finance Commission which was constituted after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister has allocated Rs. 1,34,848 crore to Kerala. This is an example of the "politics without discrimination" that Modi has set in motion, claimed Shah.

Thomas Isaac, in a Facebook post, gave detailed figures to show that the amounts claimed by Amit Shah cannot be true. Further, the Finance Commission award is a constitutional right of the States, not anybody's charity. Amit Shah's claim about the 14th Finance Commission being appointed after Modi came to power is also erroneous - the Commission, headed by former RBI governor YV Reddy, was constituted on 2 January 2013, more than a year before the Modi government came to power. The Commission submitted its report to the President of India on 15 December, 2014.

Here's the full post (translated from Malayalam) by Thomas Isaac:

"Although I have seen the social media jokes about the hollow gloating by BJP leaders, I didn't realise the extent of their bragging until now. When the party's national President himself is leading the gloating, do we need to say how terrible the State leaders and followers would be?

Let's listen to what Amit Shah says about the Finance Commission award to States. He claims that after Modi came, Kerala has been given Rs. 1,34,848 crore, an increase of Rs. 89,000 crore.

The 14th Finance Commission award is from 2015-16 onwards. The Finance Commission award for Kerala was Rs. 12,690 crore in 2015-16 and Rs. 15,225 crore in 2016-17. The expected amount for 2017-18 is Rs. 16,891 crore. The total for the three years is Rs. 44,806 crore. To this if we add the Rs. 7681.96 crore for panchayats, the revenue deficit grant of Rs. 9,519 crore and DRF (Debt Relief Facility) of Rs. 766.5 crore, the total would be Rs. 62,773.46 crore.

To reach the Rs. 1,34,848 crore which Amit Shah claimed, we will have to get Rs. 72,074.54 crore including the tax revenue share, within the next two years. It seems Kerala will get an amount which is more than the entire amount which we received in the first three years! I can only refer to this as incredible gloating.

Now there is one more point to add. The Finance Commission award is not anybody's charity. It is a constitutional right of the States. It was the UPA government, and not the Modi government, which appointed the 14th Finance Commission.

But what has Modi done? Central Plan Assistance has been eliminated. Central schemes have been cut down. States' expenditure shares within schemes have been increased. For example, earlier the States' share in the expenditure on Sarva Siksha Abhiyan was 30 per cent. Modi increased that to 50 per cent. The States' expenditure share in the National Rural Health Mission was increased from 10 per cent to 40 per cent. The States' burden in central schemes has in short been increased by the central government. Thus when we examine the States' share as a percentage of the centre's revenue, we can see that there is not much of an increase.

This is Kerala, Amit Shah. Your gloating won't work here."

Isaac used the Malayalam word "thallal" - which has come into vogue in recent times - to describe Amit Shah's claims. "Thallal", which literally means "pushing", is often used these days in a lighter vein to refer to bragging without any basis. While several BJP leaders have been alleged to be experts in "thallal", the BJP's recently appointed Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, who hails from Kerala, today has the honour of being referred to as "Thallanthanam" in the Malayalam meme world.