West Bengal Govt Claims Centre Owes It Rs 2,409 Cr as GST Compensation

GG News Bureau

Kolkata, 11th Feb. The West Bengal government responded on Friday night to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the state had not sent GST compensation cess claims with accountant general (AG) certificates from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

In response to claims that West Bengal’s dues have gone unpaid, Ms Sitharaman stated in Parliament that GST compensation to states is given when audited figures are provided, but West Bengal has not provided those since 2017.

“….the Union FM made a statement that West Bengal has not sent GST compensation cess claim with AG certificate since 2017-18 to 2021-22. The state government does not agree with the statement…,” it said in a statement.

“For West Bengal, so far, compensation has been paid on net basis for only two years 2017-18 & 2018-19. For the rest of the periods (FY 2019-20, FY 2020-21, FY 2021-22) & the period 01.04.2022 till 30.06.2022, compensation has been released based on gross revenue. If net revenue is considered, then GOI owes West Bengal ₹ 2,409.96 crore for the rest,” it added.

In December, the finance minister stated that state governments’ GST claims would be cleared once she received relevant paperwork and a certificate from their respective AGs.

She stated that the respective AG must provide a certificate stating that the specific state is entitled to this amount of compensation.

The West Bengal government rejected the finance minister’s claim that the state owes the Centre 1,841 crore for CRPF deployment.

“The forces are deployed as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India. The consent of the State Governments is not taken regarding the need for deployment of Central forces during these elections,” the statement said.

“Accordingly, the expenditure relating to deployment of CAPF personnel for election duty should be borne by Government of India and not by the States,” it added.

In response to Ms Sitharaman’s statement that a reconciliation report on Gram Sadak Yojana is awaited from the West Bengal government, it stated that all information requested by the Ministry of Rural Development had been sent.

“Information was sought through the mail and all have been sent to them. No further query has been raised till date by MoRD against this report,” the statement said.