December-March states GST compensation arrears: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday that there is a due of the last four months from December to March of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation payable to the states. Sitharaman told reporters here, “We are talking about it from time to time. The GST dues are clearly explained in the GST Council.

This is not happening with the state-specific … All In the case of states, the GST indemnities of December, January, February, and March have not been paid. “Under the GST Act, states are allowed to pay revenue for the first five years of GST.

Guarantee of payment of compensation for loss of Rs. GST has come into effect from July 1, 2017. Revenue reduction is calculated on the basis of estimating 2015-16 to be 14 percent increase in GST collections annually as the base year. 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% of the tax is levied under GST. Besides this, cess is also levied on luxury and perishable goods.

States are compensated for themselves. There is no difference between the Center and the States in respect of payment of compensation in the financial year 2017-18, 2018-19, and for the first four months (April-July) of the last financial year (2019-20). There were no differences. However, with the fall in revenue collection from the compensation cess, the Center started withholding the payment of compensation to the states from August.

After this, the states raised the issue with the Center, then in December 2019, Rs 35,298 crore was released as compensation for August-September. After this, 34,053 crore rupees were given to the states in two installments in February and April as compensation for October-November. The Center has so far paid more than Rs 2.45 lakh crore as GST compensation to the states. It has paid more than Rs 45 lakh crore.