Centre releases 16th weekly installment of Rs 5000 crore to States to meet GST compensation shortfall

The Ministry of Finance has released the 16th weekly instalment of Rs 5000 crore to the states on Sunday to meet the GST compensation shortfall. Out of this, an amount of around Rs 4597 crore has been released to 23 States while an amount of over Rs 402 crore to the three Union Territories - Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry who are members of the GST Council.

The Ministry of Finance in a statement said that the remaining five states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation. It said, till now, 86 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States and UTs. Out of this, an amount of nearly Rs 86,730 crore has been released to the States and an amount of around Rs 8,270 crore released to these three UTs.

The Government 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. Sixteen rounds of borrowings have been completed so far starting from October 23, 2020. It said that a total amount of Rs 95,000 crore has been released so far to all States and UTs with the legislature.