Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur made the announcement in Lok Sabha after TRS MPs along with MPs from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh raised the issue complaining that their respective States were not getting their due share of GST and IGST.

Hyderabad: The Centre on Monday announced that it will release all dues pertaining to Goods and Services Tax compensation to the States in two installments. Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur made the announcement in Lok Sabha after TRS MPs along with MPs from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh raised the issue complaining that their respective States were not getting their due share of GST and IGST. However, he did not give any assurance with regard to the time frame for the release of the dues.

The issue was raised by TRS MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour. The Union Minister said the Centre released Rs 2.1 lakh crore towards GST compensation to the States after GST implementation came into force from July 2017, and GST compensation had been released till September 2019. The Union government is yet to release bi-monthly GST compensation due from October-November last year, followed by December 2019-January 2020.

Earlier, TRS Lok Sabha floor leader Nama Nageshwara Rao and MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy stated that delay in release of GST dues by the Union government had a severe impact on development of Telangana State. The Centre owes Telangana State about Rs 5,000 crore towards compensation of GST and IGST, the MPs pointed out.

They said though the TRS MPs took up the issue with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, there was no response from the Central government. Nageshwara Rao pointed out that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also written to several Ministers in the past, but received no response.

“Telangana State has been in the forefront in implementing several novel development and welfare programmes. But due to delay in release of GST funds, these programmes are facing hurdles in implementation. The Centre failed to explain why there has been a delay in release of dues to the States for several months,” Nageshwara Rao demanded.

Published On : 03-02-2020

Source : Telangana Today