Businessman Mohandas Pai says Karnataka was unfairly treated by the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions, urging attention to the state’s infrastructure and tax share issues.
Bengaluru
Businessman Mohandas Pai has stated that Karnataka has been treated unfairly by the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions, while emphasizing the constitutional autonomy of these bodies, which operate independently of both the previous UPA and the current NDA governments.
He clarified that the Finance Commission, constituted under the Constitution, is not influenced by the Central Government, whether UPA or NDA. “Karnataka has been unfairly treated under the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions. The 14th was set up by the UPA government, and the 15th by the NDA government. But the Finance Commission is autonomous—false information should not be spread,” Pai said.
Responding to a post by Kiran Kodladi on X, he urged attention to Bengaluru’s infrastructure issues and the broader question of fair decentralization of central taxes.
Supporting Pai’s view, former Additional Finance Secretary LK Atheek highlighted the Finance Commission’s independence, noting that the 14th Finance Commission allocated 4.713 percent of central taxes to Karnataka, which the 15th Finance Commission reduced to 3.647 percent—a decline of around 25 percent.
How can a city like Bengaluru, which generates about Rs 4 lakh crore in direct and indirect taxes, get the same share as cities in the north that do not even generate 10% of it? Why do northern states focus on getting new trains to send their youth to Bengaluru instead of creating jobs locally? The central government’s stand should be considered dishonest and purely political, Mohan Das Pai said.
