Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot said in Bhopal on Wednesday that the share of central taxes passed on to the states had been falling for the past few years, mainly because of what he called the flawed rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He was speaking shortly after presenting the state Budget in the Assembly.

Complaints against the Centre

Bhanot said finance ministers from several states had recently met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi, and many had raised the issue of shrinking tax transfers. He blamed faulty GST implementation for a fall in revenue and said this had reduced the states’ share as well. The cess on petrol and diesel, he said, had been imposed because the Centre was allocating less money.

Budget numbers

Asked whether an additional Rs 8,000 crore for the farm loan waiver would be enough, the minister said this came on top of an earlier allocation of Rs 5,000 crore, and that more money would be found when required. Questioned about the Budget’s assumption of around 18 to 20% growth in tax revenue despite lower central transfers, he said the government planned to restructure collections from transport, mining and excise. He said the bar licence renewal fee had been raised from 15 to 20% and sand mining would now be auctioned online.

A senior official said the state’s liabilities stood at Rs 1,52,745 crore as on March 31, 2018, and were projected to climb to Rs 1.80 lakh crore a year later, on March 31, 2019.

Attack on the previous government

Pointing to the Economic Survey, which ranked the state 27th of 29 states on poverty, Bhanot criticised the former BJP government, which had claimed to have lifted Madhya Pradesh out of the BIMARU (sick) group. He accused the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of taking needless loans, particularly after 2012. “Kharcha khoob hua, par BIMARU banakar chhora (they spent lavishly, but left the state in a BIMARU condition),” he said.

He declined to say whether he considered Madhya Pradesh a sick state. Public Relations Minister PC Sharma, who was with him, said the Congress government would soon turn the state around, after which Bhanot asked reporters to stick to Budget questions.

Background

The Congress formed the government after the 2018 assembly election, in which it won 114 seats to the BJP’s 109, and Kamal Nath became Chief Minister.

See also: Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party.

Originally published on 11 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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