The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found that the Centre violated its own law on the Goods and Services Tax regime and retai...
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found that the Centre violated its own law on the Goods and Services Tax regime and retained Rs 47,272 crore of the GST compensation cess that meant to be used specifically to compensate states for loss of revenue, during the financial year of 2017-’18 and 2019-’19, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
The auditor said the Centre used this money for “other purposes”, which “led to overstatement of revenue receipts and understatement of fiscal deficit for the year”. The short-crediting was a violation of the GST Compensation Cess Act, 2017.
The observations were made in a report on the accounts of the government for 2018-’19, tabled by the CAG in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday. The report on erroneous transfers by the Centre also came a week after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament that there was no provision in the law to compensate states for the loss of GST revenue out of the Consolidated Fund of India.
The GST (Compensation to States) Act guarantees all states an annual growth rate of 14% in their GST revenue during the period July 2017-June 2022. It was introduced as relief for states for the loss of revenues arising from the implementation of GST....
