BENGALURU: Opposition Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) leaders hit out at the Central government over delay in giving the GST compensation to the states. Opposition Leader in the Assembly Siddaramaiah suggested the State Government take an all-party delegation to New Delhi to demand states’ share, while JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy said states are in dire straits due to the Centre’s failure to manage the situation.
The government must put pressure on the Centre, insist on its share and not resort to borrowings, he said and added 15th Finance Commission has done injustice to the State, GST compensation is not coming, the economy is not doing well, unemployment is a major concern and in such situation if the state resorts to borrowing to pay government employees’ salaries, development activities will take a hit.
Kumaraswamy took a dig at the Centre for terming crisis arising out of Covid-19 pandemic as an unforeseen “act of God”. In a series of tweets, the former CM accused the Centre of shirking its commitment towards GST with respect to states.
“The Centre has placed two options before states. They can opt for borrowing either the GST shortfall amount of Rs 97,000 crore or borrow the entire revenue gap of Rs 2.35 lakh crore that has arisen due to GST shortfall as well as Covid-19 situation,” he said.