Assam floods: Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal urges 'liberal' financial help from Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday urged the Centre for a “liberal” financial help to the north-eastern state in the wake of a massive flood, which had hit 25 lakh people in 29 districts. At a meeting with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, Sonowal sought his intervention in the release of funds under the Flood Management Programme (FMP), Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), oil royalty arrears and incentives to the industries. [caption id=“attachment_3831839” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sarbananda Sonowal. PTI[/caption] He requested Jaitley to help Assam by all possible means to tackle the “unprecedented” and an unusually long wave of floods this year, an official release said. In this context, Sonowal sought the release of the central share of Rs 1,138 crore under the FMP during the 11th and 12th five-year plans. The state has already released its share against 141 schemes under the FMP, the release added. Sonowal also urged the Union finance minister not to restrict the refund of CGST/IGST incentives to industries to 58 percent, but to continue with the earlier policy of 100 percent duties and taxes during the last three years of the 14th Finance Commission award and under the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), 2007. “We are in the third year of the 14th Finance Commission award and a 100-percent refund has been given in the last three years. Thus, restricting the refund to the industries to 58 percent is not appropriate,” Sonowal was quoted as saying in the release.