Payment of GST Compensation to States in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

<Details of GST compensation>

As per the provisions of the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, GST compensation for financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 has already been paid to the States. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 7 December 2021.

The Minister further stated that the economic impact of the pandemic has led to higher compensation requirement due to lower GST collection and at the same time lower collection of GST compensation cess. Recently, Centre released ₹ 17,000 crore on 03.11.2021 towards GST compensation to States from the Compensation Fund. Details of GST compensation released to States/ UTs is as per details in ANNEXURE. This is in addition to GST compensation of ₹ 1,13,464 crore released to States/ UTs with legislature to partly meet the compensation payable for the period April’20 to March’21 as the amount in GST Compensation Fund was not adequate to meet the full compensation requirement, the Minister stated.

Giving more details, the Minister stated that the issue of shortfall of cess collection into Compensation Fund and GST compensation to States/UTs due to economic impact of the pandemic has been deliberated in 41st, 42nd & 43rd GST council meetings. As per the decision of GST Council, ₹1.1 lakh crore for FY 2020-21 & ₹1.59 lakh crore for FY 2021-22 has been released to States/ UTs as back-to-back loan to meet the resource of the States/UTs due to shortfall in GST compensation. Release of this amount has been front loaded during the financial year to enable States/UTs to undertake capital expenditure. In addition, depending on the amount available in the Compensation Fund, Centre has also been releasing the regular GST compensation to States to make up for GST revenue shortfall.

The Minister stated that taking into account, the GST compensation released from Compensation Fund as well as back-to-back loan released in FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22, GST compensation of ₹ 37,134 crore for period April’20 to March’21 and ₹ 14,664 crore for April-September’21 is pending to States/ UTs as per provisional figures. Centre is committed to release full GST Compensation to the States/UTs as per GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 for the transition period by extending the levy of Compensation cess beyond 5 years to meet the GST revenue shortfall as well as servicing the loan borrowed through special window scheme, the Minister stated.

On the question of proposal to extend GST compensation beyond 2022, the Minister stated that as per Section 18 of the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016, Parliament shall, by law, on the recommendation of the Goods and Services Tax Council, provide for compensation to the States for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of the goods and services tax for a period of five years from the date of implementation of GST. During transition period, the States’ revenue is protected at 14% per annum over the base year revenue of 2015-16. Central Government is committed for GST compensation to States/UTs for 5 years as per the Constitutional provision.