₹81,043 crore GST compensation released to states for April-Sept: Thakur

Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said on Tuesday ( February), the Centre has released ₹81,043 crore as GST compensation to states for April-September 2019.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said GST compensation cess collection has shown upward trend since October 2019. GST compensation cess of ₹7,607 crore was collected in October, ₹7,727 crore in November, ₹8,331 crore in December and ₹8,637 crore in January.

For 2019-20, the amount targeted to be collected from cess in GST was ₹1.09 lakh crore. Of this, ₹70,534 crore has been collected between April-December 2019. The amount of GST compensation released to states for April-September 2019 stood at ₹81,043 crore, Thakur said.

For 2018-19 fiscal, the net collection of GST compensation cess stood at ₹95,081 crore as against the target of ₹90,000 crore. For full fiscal, the government had released ₹81,141 crore to states as compensation.

For 2017-18, the net collection from cess stood at ₹62,612 crore, as against the target of ₹61,331 crore. The compensation amount released to states was ₹48,785 crore.

Under GST law, states were guaranteed to be paid for any loss of revenue in the first five years of GST implementation, which came into force on July 1, 2017. The shortfall is calculated assuming a 14 per cent annual growth in GST collections by states over the base year of 2015-16.

“For providing such compensation to states, compensation cess is being levied on certain luxury and demerit goods as per provisions in Section 8 of the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, and compensation cess is being credited into a non-lapsable Fund known as Goods and Services Tax Compensation Fund which forms part of the Public Account of India,” Thakur said.

(With inputs from agencies)