Pay Maha GST compensation dues of ₹15K-cr: CM to Centre

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking “legitimate dues” of ₹15,558.05 crore from the Centre

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking “legitimate dues” of ₹15,558.05 crore from the Centre towards the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation until November 2019.

HT Image

In his letter, Thackeray has sought immediate release of the amount, to ensure development programmes of the state government do not “suffer”. Thackeray’s party, the Shiv Sena, has been vocal about the delay in payment of dues from the Union government after the GST regime came into effect in July 2017.

“The dues include ₹6,946.29 crore of tax devolution and ₹8,611.76 crore towards GST compensation,” the letter stated. “As per the Union budget 2019-20, the tax devolution to Maharashtra was ₹46,630.66 crore, which is 11.15% more than the ₹41,952.65 crore received by the state during 2018-19. But the state has received only ₹20,254.92 crore till October 2019, which is 25.53% less than the budgetary estimates of the year 2019-2020,” the letter added.

State government officials said Maharashtra is under a debt of ₹6.70 lakh crore and needs funds so that the state can announce populist decisions, including farm loan waiver.

The letter further stated that Integrated GST (IGST) settlement was done during 2017-18, based on tax devolution formula of the Finance Commission, instead of the formula adopted for the settlement.

“As per the latest CAG report, for the year ended March 2018, the IGST settlement for many transactions is not happening,” the letter added.