Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal remarked on Saturday that the demand by some state governments that they should get central funds proportionate to their contribution of taxes was “petty thinking”.

Referring to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government that was in power in Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022, Goyal said: “The leaders of the earlier government which was there for two-and-a-half years, they used to calculate the tax paid by Mumbai and Maharashtra and demand that it should get that much money back [as central funds].”

He added: “Similarly, there are some states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, which say they should get back the amount of taxes they have paid. I believe that nothing can be more petty and unfortunate than this.”

However, Goyal claimed that the current government in Maharashtra, led by BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, is very sensitive towards North East India.

Goyal, the MP from Mumbai North, made the remarks at an event organised in the city by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad as part of an initiative to facilitate interaction between students of the North East and the rest of the country. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

In February last year, the Congress government in Karnataka, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, held a protest in Delhi against the Centre’s “financial injustice” towards the southern state. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also joined the protest.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had, however, maintained that political interests do not come in the way of the states receiving funds from the Centre.