Kerala has received ₹410.08 crore from the 19th weekly instalment of ₹2,104 crore released on Tuesday by the Union Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure to the States to meet the Goods and Service Tax (GST) compensation shortfall.
With the release of the amount, the GST compensation shortfall provided by the Centre to Kerala has touched ₹4,923.48 crore. On March 1, the State had received ₹210 crore from the ₹4,000 crore released by the Centre as the 18th weekly instalment to the States and Union Territories to meet the GST compensation shortfall.
Kerala had got ₹575 crore from the ₹5,000 crore in the 17th instalment and another ₹252 crore from the 16th instalment of Rs. 5,000 crore released by the Centre.
Of the amount released on Tuesday, ₹2,103.95 crore has been released to seven States and ₹0.05 crore has been released to Union Territory of Puducherry. The amount released has been borrowed at an interest rate of 5.85%.
So far, ₹1,06,104 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an weighted average interest rate of 4.88%. The State has to get another instalment for the GST compensation shortfall.
Kerala has been given the permission of additional borrowing of ₹4,522 crore and has so far raised ₹4,923.48 crore through the special window till March 8, 2021. Till now, 96% of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States and Union Territories with Legislative Assembly.
The government had set up a special borrowing window in October, 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of ₹1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST.
