Government had set up a special borrowing window to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.1 lakh crore
The government on Monday said that it had released the eighth weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall. Out of this, Rs 5,516 crore has been released to 23 states and Rs 483.40 crore to the three union territories with legislative assembly, that is Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry, it said.
“The remaining five states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim -- do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation,” the Finance Ministry spokesperson said.
Earlier in October, the Central government had set up a special borrowing window to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the Central government on behalf of the states and UTs.
The amount released this week was the eighth instalment of such funds provided to the states. The Finance Ministry said that the amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of around 4.2 per cent.
“So far, an amount of Rs. 48,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.6986 per cent,” it said.
In addition to providing funds through the special borrowing window to meet the shortfall in revenue on account of GST implementation, the government has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.5 per cent of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states that chose that option.