Centre Releases Rs 1617 Crore To Odisha To Meet GST Compensation Shortfall

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday released Rs 1617.65 crore to Odisha towards ‘Back to Back Loan’ in lieu of GST compensation shortfall.

The Finance Ministry released total ₹40,000 crore to the states and Union Territories  with legislature under the back-to-back loan facility to meet the shortfall in GST compensation. The amount is funded from borrowings of the Centre in 5-year securities, totalling ₹23,500 crore and  2-year securities for ₹16,500 crore issued in the current fiscal.

Of the total amount sanctioned to Odisha, Rs 950.37 crore has been released under five-year tenor and Rs 667.28 crore under 2-year tenor.

On July 15, the Central government had released ₹75,000 crore to the states and UTs. With the current release, the total amount released in this fiscal as back to back loan has reached to ₹1,15,000 crore. This release is in addition to normal GST compensation being released every 2 months out of actual cess collection.

It may be noted that at the GST Council meeting on May 28, it was decided by the Central Government that it would borrow ₹1.59 lakh crore in 2021-22 and release it to the states and UTs on a back-to-back basis to meet the resource gap.

Today’s release will help the states to plan the public expenditure for improving health infrastructure and taking up infrastructure projects.