States yet to receive Rs 53,000 crore from Centre as GST compensation

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday the payment of around Rs 53,000 crore is pending as Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation to states for the current financial year.

Replying to a debate on the Finance Bill 2022 in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the central government has not made any discrimination in releasing of GST compensation to states.

"Please stop this politics. Every state gets the compensation as per the decision of the GST Council," the Finance Minister said.

"Many members do raise, the dues for this state is so much, that state is so much. Those are not decided by me. The dues are agreed... as of now Rs 53,000 odd crores are pending and that is also an amount decided by the council," Sitharaman said.

The Finance Minister informed the Rajya Sabha earlier this month that the Central government has released Rs 96,576 crore to states and Union Territories (UTs) so far this year to meet the revenue shortfall on account of the implementation of GST.

As part of the implementation of the new tax regime, the centre has agreed to compensate the states and Union Territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly for any loss in revenue. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was implemented on 1 July 2017. The centre has agreed to compensate the revenue shortfall for the first five years of the implementation.

Replying to a demand made by Congress Party leader Gaurav Gogoi regarding the extension of GST compensation to states in view of the revenue shortfalls, Sitharaman said the GST Council has already extended the GST compensation cess till March 2026.

( With inputs from ANI )

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