Members of Parliament from Punjab and West Bengal on Wednesday raised in Rajya Sabha the issue of Centre not releasing the State’s share of compensation under the Goods and Service Tax (GST), leading to severe financial crisis like delay in release of salary and pension.
Mentioning the issue during Zero Hour, Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa said States were assured of adequate compensation for five years after the introduction of GST.
“GST compensation, which used to be given every month initially, has subsequently been made once in two months. We were expecting compensation for August and September sometime in October. October went past and November is about to finish. There is no explanation from the Central Government. This is not the way a modern country runs,” he said.
The MP added that the GST compensation due to Punjab is ₹2,100 crore. “We have some arrears pending worth about ₹2,000 crore. For a small State like Punjab, the outstanding amount is ₹4,100 crore, which is grossly unfair,” Mr. Bajwa said.
The GST subsumed 17 different Central and State levies in July 2017 and States were assured that they would be compensated for any loss of revenue for the first five years of the introduction of GST.
Trinamool Congress’s Manas Ranjan Bhunia said GST collections have fallen short of the ₹1 lakh crore target and the Finance Minister should issue a statement in the House.
“Our State, West Bengal, has been suffering for the last two months. It is not getting the share of compensation of the GST meant for the State. ‘One nation, one tax’ for the country was announced in a loud voice, abolishing all the taxes under the jurisdiction of the State governments. Everyone appreciated the GST, but we had cautioned that hasty implementation of the GST would create a turbulent economic situation which would affect the economic structure in a federal system like ours. And that has, indeed, happened. We are witnessing roadblocks in development, allocation and implementation of various projects,” Mr. Bhunia said.
Last week, five non-BJP ruled States had raised concerns over delay in payment of GST compensation by the Centre.
