Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's finance minister Thomas Isaac has said that he has called upon the finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Delhi to participate in the Vijayawada conclave on May 7.
The meet is a follow up of the April 10 exercise where finance ministers of the southern states met in Thiruvananthapuram and came down heavily on the central government for its alleged ill-treatment of the said states.
"Called on the honourable finance minister of Andhra Pradesh, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu. Second Conclave Finance Ministers will be held at Vijayawada on May 7th. All state governments who are in broad agreement with the conclusions of Thiruvananthapuram Conclave are welcome," tweeted Isaac.
He further added, "We phoned Manpreet Singh Badal FM of Punjab and Manish Sisodia FM of Delhi. Both Delhi and Punjab will be participating in the Vijayawada Conclave on May 7th. Hoping that Odisha, West Bengal, Mizoram and southern States will be participating the deliberations at Vijayawada."
On April 10, representatives from the three states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh in addition to Kerala and Puducherry got together, while Telangana and Tamil Nadu abstained.
Andhra was represented by finance minister Eramala Ramakrishnudu while Karnataka by its agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Puducherry by Chief Minister V Narayansamy, who is also the finance minister.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who inaugurated the meet, demanded revision in the terms of reference by the 15th Finance Commission as it questions the fiscal federalism and principles of democratic governance.
The 15th Finance Commission constituted in November 2017, recognises population as an important criterion for distribution of taxes between the Centre and states. It will use data from the 2011 census while making recommendations for the five-year period beginning from 2020.
The southern states want the recommendations to be based on 1971 census data. The states say that in comparison to northern states, they have recorded significant progress in population control.
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