BENGALURU: The Central government on Friday borrowed and transferred Rs 6,000 crores as the first tranche of the GST component to 16 states, including Karnataka. The other states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Union Territories of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.
The borrowing is at an interest rate of 5.19 per cent. The Centre intends to make weekly releases of Rs 6,000 crore to the states. The tenure of borrowing is expected to be broadly in the range of 3 to 5 years.
The Centre has evolved a special borrowing window to address the shortfall in GST collection in the year 2020–2021, and 21 States and two UTs opted for this special window involving back-to-back borrowing coordinated by the Ministry of Finance.