Centre releases INR 6,000 crore to 23 states, 3 UTs to meet GST shortfall

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Dec. 14 (EMN): The Union Ministry of Finance has released the 7th weekly instalment of INR 6,000 crore to the states as back-to-back loan to meet the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation shortfall; an amount of INR 5,516.60 crore released to 23 states and INR 483.40 crore to three Union Territories (UT).

The remaining five states including Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation.

In October, the government of India had set up a special borrowing window to meet the estimated shortfall of INR 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST, and the borrowing have been done in seven rounds.

So far, the amount borrowed has been released to the states on October 23, November 2, November 9, November 23, December 1, 7 and the 14th.

The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 5.1348% and so far a total amount of INR 42,000 crore has been borrowed by the central government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.7712%, according to a PIB report.

It stated that the government of India has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.50% of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states to meet GST compensation shortfall to help them in mobilising additional financial resources.

Permission for borrowing the entire additional amount of INR 1,06,830 crore (0.50% of GSDP) has been granted to 28 states under this provision, it stated.