New Delhi (NVI): The government of Punjab has announced the acceptance of Option-1 to meet the revenue shortfall arising out of goods and service tax (GST) implementation, the Ministry of Finance said.
The state will get Rs 8,359 crore by the government through special borrowing window to meet the GST implementation shortfall.
“The number of States who have chosen this option has gone up to 26. All the 3 Union Territories with Legislative Assembly (i.e. Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry) have also decided in favour of Option-1,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
It added that, the states and Union Territories who choose Option-1 are getting the amount of shortfall arising out of GST implementation through a special borrowing window put in place by the government.
Since October 23, the window has been operationalised and the government has already borrowed Rs 24,000 crores on behalf of the States in four instalments and passed it on to the States and Union Territories, who chose Option-1 on October 23, November 2, November 9 and November 23.
Furthermore, the state of Punjab will also receive funds raised through this window starting from the next round of borrowing.
Under the terms of Option-1, besides getting the facility of a special window for borrowings to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, the States are also entitled to get unconditional permission to borrow the final instalment of 0.50 per cent of gross state domestic product (GSDP) out of the 2 per cent additional borrowings, under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, the ministry said.
“This is over and above the special window of Rs 1.1 lakh crores.”
On receipt of the choice of Option-1 from Punjab, the Government of India has granted additional borrowing permission of Rs 3,033 crores to the state government (0.5 per cent of Punjab’s GSDP), it added.
Apart from this, Kerala and West Bengal also opted for Option-1 recently to meet GST implementation shortfall.
-RJV
