Centre releases 16th instalment of Rs 5,000 crore to states to meet GST compensation shortfall

The Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance has released the 16th weekly instalment of Rs 5,000 crore to the States on Monday to meet the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation shortfall.

"Out of this, an amount of Rs 4,597.16 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of Rs 402.84 crore has been released to the three Union Territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council. The remaining five states, Arunachal Pradesh, Mpur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation," read the press release by the Ministry of Finance.

Till now, 86 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States and UTs with Legislative Assembly. Out of this, an amount of Rs 86,729.93 crore has been released to the states and an amount of Rs 8,270.07 crore has been released to the three UTs with Legislative Assembly.

The Government of India had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the Government of India on behalf of the States and UTs. 16 rounds of borrowings have been completed so far starting from October 23, 2020.

The amount released this week was the 16th instalment of such funds provided to the States. The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 4.6480 per cent. So far, an amount of Rs 95,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.7831 per cent.

In addition to providing funds through the special borrowing window to meet the shortfall in revenue on account of GST implementation, the Government of India has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.50 per cent of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states choosing Option-I to meet GST compensation shortfall to help them in mobilising additional financial resources. All the States have given their preference for Option-I.

Permission for borrowing the entire additional amount of Rs 1,06,830 crore (0.50 per cent of GSDP) has been granted to 28 States under this provision.

( With inputs from ANI )