Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday contested the claim that the Centre had cleared the Goods and Services Tax (GST) it owed to the State governments.
In a statement to the media, the Congress leader put out the different amounts of GST dues that the Centre had to pay to some of the Opposition-ruled States.
Referring to a television interview, he said, “the FM angrily rebuffed the interviewer and snapped: ‘What dues, I have cleared the GST dues of all States’. The FM was wrong. The anger was unjustified”.
Mr. Chidambaram stated, “I have gathered data about GST dues from three States. They are: Punjab: ₹7,393 crore as on 1-6-2021; Rajasthan: ₹ 7,142 crore as on 21-5-2021, and Chhattisgarh: ₹3,069 crore as on 1-6-2021”.
Separately, he said he also found out how much the Centre owed to his State, Tamil Nadu, where the Congress is a part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led alliance.
“The dues pertaining to 2019-20 and 2020-21 amount to ₹ 6415 crore!”, he claimed.
