On Sunday Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia took to Twitter to inform that the AAP-led government had written to the Finance Minister seeking Rs 5,000 crore from the government.
"I have written a letter to the Union Finance Minister asking for an amount of Rs 5000 crore for Delhi," he wrote on Twitter. Sisodia explained that owing to the novel coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown tax collection had fallen drastically -- by about 85%.
"Delhi has not received any funds from the Disaster Relief Fund released by the Center to the remaining states,' he added.
Responding to the same, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Centre to look into the issue and help the people in this time of need.
Reports suggest that the money sought by the Delhi government would be used to pay employee salaries and meet office expenses. Sisodia, who incidentally holds the Finance portfolio said that Delhi had collected only about Rs. 500 crore each month for the last two months in GST. Combined with other income sources, the national capital territory had collected a total of Rs 1735 crore in two months.
Addressing a press conference he had added that at least Rs 7,000 crore was needed to pay salaries and meet other expenses.
"The major crisis before us is how to pay salaries of our employees so I have written to the Union Finance Minister for urgent assistance of Rs 5,000 crore," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
