Banwarilal Purohit hits back at Pawan Kumar Bansal over Chandigarh funds

Chandigarh, June 1

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UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit today termed the allegations levelled by former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal that the revenue generated from city taxpayers was mismanaged and the Administration failed to protest against unfair treatment meted out to it by the Union Government, as completely baseless.

Addressing mediapersons at the UT Secretariat, Purohit said, “Bansal is a very mature politician and I am pained that he levelled allegations which are completely baseless and without any fact. He should have checked the facts before issuing them to the media.”

On May 28, Bansal had also alleged that every rupee collected as tax from the people of Chandigarh goes to the Consolidated Fund of the country. Consequently, both the Administration and the MC were compelled to impose additional taxes on the city residents to bridge the revenue gap, he had alleged.

Purohit said the Union Government consistently allocated a budget that surpassed the revenue collected from taxes in the UT. For the financial year 2023-24, the Administration secured an increased budget allocation of Rs 6,087.10 crore, a growth of Rs 307.98 crore (5.33%) against the previous year’s budget allocation of Rs 5,779.12 crore.

In light of these facts, it is incorrect to claim that the Centre gave inadequate budget allocations in relation to the taxes collected in Chandigarh.