Following the rising criticism from the state governments of the country, regarding the delay in the release of funds for the GST compensation, the Centre has been releasing the same in instalments since October last year. It has, so far, released a total of Rs 1 lakh crore to the states and the UTs.
Yesterday, it released the 17th instalment of the funds. The two Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh also received Rs 1,940.95 crore and Rs 2,222.71 crore respectively, towards GST compensations.
The Telangana government has been seeking the release of the GST dues from the Centre for some time now. Especially after having to contend with losses caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, the state administration has been left antsy about its finances.
The state government had reportedly even asked the Centre to enhance its borrowing limit under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act from 3% to 5%, and had also appealed to the latter to release the special grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission.
Finance Minister T Harish Rao, who had recently spoken on the matter, had said that the way to recover from the pandemic-ravaged economy was to promote public investment in the state and had outlined the need for funds for the same. He had reportedly written a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman suggesting several budget proposals in this regard.