Finance Ministry releases weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 cr to meet GST shortfall

New Delhi, Dec 28: The Finance Ministry on Monday released the ninth instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet GST compensation shortfall, taking the total amount of fund released to Rs 54,000 crore.

The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST.

The Ministry of Finance in a statement said it has released the ninth weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall.

Out of this, an amount of Rs 5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of Rs 483.40 crore has been released to the three Union Territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir & Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council.

"The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 5.15 per cent. So far, an amount of Rs 54,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.74 per cent," the statement said.

The remaining five states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation, an official statement said. The borrowings under the special window have been done in 9 rounds and the amount borrowed so far was released to the states on October 23, November 2, November 9, November 23, December 1, December 7, December 14, December 21 and December 28, 2020.

In addition to providing funds through the special borrowing window to meet the shortfall in revenue on account of GST implementation, the Centre has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.50 per cent of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states to help them in mobilising additional financial resources. Permission for borrowing the entire additional amount of Rs 1,06,830 lakh crore (0.50 per cent of GSDP) has been granted to 28 states under this provision, the statement added.