(LiveMint)
The Centre has released ₹13,806 crore to states as their Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation for March, said an official statement. With this, the Narendra Modi administration has paid the entire compensation to states for the last fiscal, the statement said. For FY20, the Centre paid ₹1,65,302 crore although the amount collected by way of a cess on items like tobacco and cars for raising revenue for compensation was only ₹95,444 crore, the statement said. The Centre also said that to meet the gap, the cess collected in FY18 and FY19 was also utilised.
GST compensation has been a thorny issue between the central and state governments, which is set to aggravate on account of the compensation to be paid to states for the current year, which also includes the revenue loss during the period of the pandemic. While states are expected to insist on full compensation, the central government prefers states to share the revenue losses during the period as the Centre too suffered revenue losses and meeting the full compensation requirement may be a big burden on it.
