New Delhi: Days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) flagged that the Centre in the first two years of the GST implementation wrongly retained GST compensation cess that was meant to be used specifically to compensate states for loss of revenue, ministry sources said compensation due for the year 2017-18 and 2018-19 was fully paid to states.
Time taken in reconciliation of compensation receipts can’t be termed as diversion of GST cess fund when the dues to states were fully released by the central government, they said. Sources said that in 2017-18, Rs 62,611 crore was collected, out of which the government released full compensation dues of Rs 41,146 crore to the states and union territories (UTs).
In 2018-19, an amount of Rs 95,081 crore was collected, out of which Rs 69,275 crore was paid as full compensation dues to states and UTs. They said an amount of Rs 47,271 crore collected in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 had remained unutilised for reconciliation post full payment of GST compensation dues.
For the year 2019-20, the central government released Rs 1,65,302 crore as GST compensation against a cess collection of Rs 95,444 crore which it could do so with the unutilised cess of Rs 47,271 crore. The GST (Compensation to States) Act guarantees all states an annual growth rate of 14 per cent in their GST revenue in the first five years of implementation of GST beginning July 2017. It was introduced as a relief for states for the loss of revenues arising from the implementation of GST.
If a state’s revenue grows slower than 14 per cent, it is supposed to be compensated by the Centre using the funds specifically collected as compensation cess. To provide these grants, a GST compensation cess is levied on certain luxury and sin goods. The collected compensation cess flows into the consolidated fund of India (CFI), and is then transferred to the Public Account of India, where a GST compensation cess account has been created. States are compensated bi-monthly from the accumulated funds in this account.
