'Andhra Pradesh has lost Rs1,605 crore over GST' 

Visakhapatnam: Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Tuesday raised concern over the delay by the Union Government in paying Andhra Pradesh the guaranteed compensation against the loss of revenue due to GST for August-September.

Vijaysai Reddy said AP has been losing revenue since August 2019 and officials have pegged the amount at Rs1,605 crore.

The MP also mentioned that it is mandatory for the Centre to release the GST loss to states once in two months. But the Union Government has not compensated AP for the revenue loss for August and September, which was supposed to be paid in October, he said.

The October-November period loss has to be paid by December 10, he added. The GST was rolled out in July 2017. As per the provision of GST, the Centre would compensate to states for any revenue loss in the first five years of its implementation.

As per the provisions of GST Act, the growth of GST revenue to States would be 14% every year from 2015-16 (since the implementation of the GST). And, there is also a provision under GST that for any revenue loss to States due to switchover to GST, the Union Government will make good to States for first five years of implementation of GST, Reddy added.

To compensate the states, the Centre will levy cess on goods that come under 28% GST slab. So, last year, the Union Government collected Rs 95,000 crore as compensation cess. This year, GOI has so far collected Rs55,000 crores till the end of October 2019, which is 1.5% more than what it was collected last year during the same period.

MP Reddy appealed to the GST Council and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take a decision without fail and release the compensation figure of Rs1,605 crore to Andhra.