BENGALURU: The Union government has once again delayed the Goods and Service Tax (GST) compensation to state governments. GST compensation of about Rs 3,300 crore for October- November due to Karnataka that was scheduled to be paid by December 31, has been delayed once again, throwing the state’s finances and budgeting off track. Compensation for December- January — an estimated Rs 3,200 crore — is scheduled to be paid by the end of March this year, but given the consecutive delay in payment, the state is jittery. “The lack of communication is the bigger challenge.
Letters sent from the state to the Union government only receive an acknowledgement in response. There is no answer or clarification on why there is a delay. There is not even assurance of when we can expect the dues,” said an official from the state’s finance department. Karnataka is scheduled to present its budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 on March 5.
The consecutive delay comes at a time when the Centre showed gross GST revenue collections of Rs 1,03,184 crore in December 2019. Of the Rs 1,03,184 crore, central GST is Rs 19,962 crore and state GST is Rs 26,792 crore, while IGST and cess account for the rest. In November 2019, the GST collections stood at Rs 1,03,492 crore, of which CGST was Rs 19,592 crore and SGST was Rs 27,144 crore.
In October 2019, gross GST revenue collected was Rs 95,380 crore, of which CGST was Rs 17,582 crore and SGST was 23,674crore. Compensation to Karnataka, like other states, however, are still pending for the same period. A delegation of bureaucrats, along with Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, was part of the GST council meeting headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in December last year. A few states are said to have raised the issue of delay in payment, but the concerns elicited no response.