GST payout gives Telangana State government big relief

Hyderabad: The decision of the Centre to release GST compensations of Rs 1,200 crore to Telangana has come as some relief to the cash-strapped state.

The Centre has decided to release GST amount to all States ahead of the GST council meeting to be held on December 18. It may be mentioned here that the state government had urged the Centre to release its due on many occasions.

Recently, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had also written a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release funds due to the state.

The state government in fact wanted to raise this issue at the GST council meeting and officials had been asked to prepare a detailed note on it.

The TS government has been struggling hard for funds to meet the growing financial needs mainly the implementation of welfare schemes, including Rythu Bandhu for rabi season.

Officials said that the compensation amount will provide a relief to the Telangana state.

"The Centre owes Rs 2,812 crore towards IGST (Integrated Good and Service Tax) to Telangana for the year 2017-18," a senior official said.

The representatives will raise the issue in the council meeting to be presided over by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi.

Source said that the TS government will also mount pressure on the Centre for the release of state share from time to time so that the government will not face any fund crunch.

The officials will also pitch for more devolution of funds to the best performing states in the GST collections.

Telangana has been maintaining first in adopting new technologies in the tax collections and transparency in the tax filings by the traders.

These issues will also be highlighted in the presentation to be made by the TS government during the meeting.