New Delhi: The CAG has informed that the central government has shifted GST compensation of about Rs 4,000 crore in two financial years. The government today clarified the CAG claim. The government has said that the GST compensation has not been transferred. The finance ministry has denied the allegations. According to the ministry, all the GST grants have been paid to the states in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 financial years. Compensation in the form of compensation cess was kept for final consideration. That can’t be said to be used elsewhere. It has been clarified by the ministry that what is collected about taxes and cesses is first put in the Indian Organized Fund. From there the funds are transferred elsewhere. The final amount of tax collected is known at the end of the financial year. Therefore, what is more than the estimated income remains in the Indian organized fund. So there is no way to transfer money to organized funds for a few days, ”the finance ministry said.
In 2016-17, the GST compensation of Rs 62,611 crore was collected. The states were given Rs 7,18 crore in compensation for that financial year. In 2016-17, Rs 45,061 crore was recovered as compensation. For the same year, the states were given Rs 4,285 crore in compensation. The remaining two years, or Rs 6,281 crore, were pending. In 2019-20, the government collected Rs 45.8 crore in cess. But the states paid a much higher compensation of Rs 1,75,302 crore. The money needed after the collection was used from the remaining funds in the previous two years.
