Ramaswami: In a shameless attempt to hide these tax revenue declines and balance its books, the BJP government took an even more unprecedented step. It refused to pay the states their share of revenues as statutorily required. This cut amounted to Rs 1.53 lakh crore. This means that states were now bearing the burden of the centre’s policies, including the corporate freebies. With this ‘saving’ the BJP government managed to cover up a chunk of the losses and show in its books a total decline of only Rs 36.74 thousand crore. Meanwhile states were grappling on how to go about fulfilling their responsibilities without this mandated funds.