States contest Centre’s GST estimates

FMs of Kerala, Punjab, C’garh want GST Council to discuss issue

● KERALA FINANCE minister said `4,077 cr is due on account of compensation from the Centre and Centre should ensure that the states get the 14 per cent promised growth in revenue.

New Delhi, May 30: The compensation amount promised by the Centre is estimated to be higher than the `1.58 lakh crore projected by the Centre, and a special session of the GST Council will be convened to discuss it, three opposition-ruled states said on Sunday.

Finance ministers of Kerala, Punjab and Chhattisgarh said there was no consensus regarding the compensation requirement in 2021-22 in the May 28 GST Council meeting and a special session would be called only to discuss ‘Revenue Augmentation and Post June 2022 compensation’.

Punjab finance minister

Manpreet Singh Badal said all states are facing shortfall in the range of

20-50 per cent and “we have said that the Council should be meeting every quarter to discuss the revenue situation of states”.

“The shortfall in compensation up to April is

`5,000 crore for Punjab. All opposition-ruled states spoke in one voice that the compensation amount from Centre should be higher,” Badal said.

Punjab, he said, has been pitching for a discussion on the compensation mechanism that would be adopted after June 2022, as states continue to face revenue gap following the GST implementation than what was collected in the pre-GST times.

Kerala finance minister K.N. Balagopal said `4,077 crore is due on account of compensation from the Centre and the Centre should ensure that the states get the 14 per cent promised growth in revenue. “The 7 per cent revenue growth assumption is no assumption. Some states are facing negative growth, hence this assumption does not stand. We will discuss the issue,” Balagopal added.

Chhattisgarh finance minister T.S. Singh Deo said projections regarding compensation and borrowing were made by the Centre and a detailed discussion would happen at the special session of the GST Council, date for which has not been decided yet.

The Centre has estimated the compensation requirement of states at `2.69 lakh crore for the current financial year. Of this, over `1.11 lakh crore would come from cess on luxury, demerit and sin goods which will be given to the states to compensate them for the shortfall in revenue arising out of GST implementation , according to the agenda note circulated before the Council meeting.

The remaining

`1.58 lakh crore would have to be borrowed to meet the promised compensation, based on the assumption that a revenue growth of states would be

7 per cent this fiscal, the note added. In the last fiscal 2020-21, the Centre had borrowed on behalf of the states and released `1.10 lakh crore to compensate for the GST revenue shortfall. Another `68,700 crore was collected by way of levy of cess. —

30: Four civilians and a police officer were killed Sunday by suspected jihadists in southern Mali, a region that has previously been mostly spared from the country’s Islamist unrest, a security official said.

The unidentified men attacked a checkpoint near the town of Bougouni, around 100 kilometres

(60 miles) from Mali’s borders with Ivory Coast and Guinea between 3:30 am

(0330 GMT) and 4:00 am, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local lawmaker, also requesting anonymity, confirmed the attack, saying it had targeted an outpost that is used by both police and forest rangers.

The checkpoint sits on a key route between Mali and Ivory Coast.

The attack came as West African leaders from the ECOWAS regional bloc were preparing to meet in Ghana on Sunday to discuss a response to the political turmoil in Mali, which this week witnessed its second military coup in nine months.

New president Colonel

Bamako, May

Assimi Goita, who led the coup last August and was installed after transitional president Bah Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane were stripped of the powers this week, is attending the ECOWAS talks in Accra.

Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was forced out by young army officers led by Goita last August over perceived corruption and his failure to quell a bloody jihadist insurgency.

The jihadist conflict first emerged in northern Mali in 2012.