New Delhi (NVI): The Ministry of Finance today released the 15th weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to 23 states and 3 Union Territories under a special borrowing window, in a bid to bridge the Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue 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 3 Union Territories with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir & Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council, according to a statement released by Ministry of Finance.
The remaining 5 states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation, the statement added.
Till now, 81 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States & UTs with Legislative Assembly.
An amount of Rs 82,132.76 crore has been released to the states and an amount of Rs 7,867.24 crore has been released to the 3 UTs.
The Government of India 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 borrowings are being done through this window by the Centre on behalf of the states and UTs.
This week, the amount has been borrowed at an interest rate of 5.5288 per cent.
So far, an amount of Rs 90,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.7921 per cent.
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 choosing Option-I to meet GST compensation shortfall to help them in mobilising additional financial resources, the ministry added.
-CHK
