States urge Pranab to solve CST issue before demitting office

States have asked finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the issue of payment of compensation for reduction in Central Sales Tax (CST) rate before demitting his office to contest the election of the post of President of India.

States have asked finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the issue of payment of compensation for reduction in Central Sales Tax (CST) rate before demitting his office to contest the election of the post of President of India.

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"I understand that you may be soon demitting the office of the Union Finance Minister. I therefore, humbly request you to kindly resolve the CST compensation issue before that," said Sushil Kumar Modi, chairman of the Empowered Committee (EC) of state finance ministers in a letter to Mukherjee.

Talking to PTI over phone, Modi while lauding Mukherjee for the work he has done so that the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime could be implemented at the earliest, cautioned that "in case the CST compensation issue remains unresolved longer, it may affect the implementation of GST".

Mukherjee, who is the UPA nominee for the presidential election, is likely to resign on June 26 ahead of filing nomination to contest the election for the country's highest post.

As per an agreement, the CST rate was to be reduced to zero in a phased manner, and the Centre was to compensate state governments for the loss of their revenue on account of cut in the levy rate.

CST, a tax on inter-state movement of goods, was reduced from 4% to 3% in 2007-08, and further to 2% in 2008-09 after the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT). There was no reduction after that.

Although CST is levied by the Centre, the revenue goes to the state government and the state from which movement of goods commences gets revenue.