-Newsclick.in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoking ‘Act of God’ to deny states their promised dues, not only violates an Act of Parliament but also defies economic logic. When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, and states virtually gave up the power to levy indirect taxes which they had enjoyed under the Constitution, the Centre had solemnly promised that it would compensate them for five years for any revenue shortfall arising...

-The Hindu ‘Centre should borrow loan and pay dues instead of asking States to do so citing fall in collections’ Hyderabad: Six State governments, including Telangana, on Monday bounced back the Centre’s offer made to them to borrow loan and meet their GST compensation in view of shortfall in collections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At a video conference of Finance Ministers, Telangana apart, West Bengal, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Punjab governments, arrived...

-The Hindu State rejects Centre’s options; to work for consensus among States. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has rejected the two options for Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation mooted by the Centre at the 41st GST Council meeting earlier this week. Instead the State has asked the Centre to take a loan and provide compensation to the States. “We have decided to inform the Centre in writing that the State cannot agree to the two...

-The Hindu In bridging the GST gap, the Centre ought to help States through the Consolidated Fund of India It is beyond anyone’s imagination that the Government of India would invoke the “Force Majeure” clause against its own people. Unfortunately, this has become reality at a time when every Indian State is massively burdened by the COVID-19 crisis and governance has been severely affected. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement on Thursday that the...

-The Indian Express The economic slowdown, which has been underway for almost three years now, began to adversely impact GST revenue collections in August last year. While the Centre Thursday chose to pin much of the blame for the delays on GST compensation payments to the slowdown inflicted by the pandemic, the delays preceded the Covid-19 shock by almost a year – when payments due for August-September 2019 got delayed. Since then,...