Kerala has received ₹303.92 crore from the 13th instalment of ₹6,000 crore released by the Centre on Monday to the States to meet the Goods and Service Tax (GST) compensation shortfall.
The State had received ₹3,413.8 crore as GST compensation shortfall out of the total ₹12,100 crore due from the Centre so far. With the release of the present tranche, this will go up to ₹3,717.72 crore.
Of the ₹6,000 crore released, ₹5,516.60 crore is for 23 States and ₹483.40 crore to the Union Territories (UT) of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, and Puducherry, who are members of the GST Council. Till now, 70% of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released.
The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October, 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of ₹1.10 lakh crore in revenue on account of implementation of GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the government on behalf of the States and UTs.
The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 5.31%. An amount of ₹78,000 crore has been borrowed by the Centre through the special borrowing window at an average interest of 4.74%.
At Saturday’s meeting of MPs convened by the State, the Chief Minister had asked them to put pressure on the Centre to get the GST compensation shortfall balance due to Kerala. The total GST compensation due is ₹12,100 crore.
Kerala was among the last to accept Option I put forward by the Union Government for meeting the GST compensation cess shortfall. The Centre had already granted additional borrowing permission of ₹4,522 crore to Kerala (0.5% of Kerala’s GSDP).
