GST compensation: West Bengal says Centre owes it Rs 2,409 crore

This comes after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman alleged that West Bengal failed to send the GST compensation cess claim with AG certificate.

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Friday night said the Centre owes it Rs 2,409.96 crore, responding to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the state has not sent GST compensation cess claim with accountant general (AG) certificate from 2017-18 to 2021-22. Replying to assertions that West Bengal's dues have been neglected, Sitharaman in Parliament said GST compensation to states is given when the audited figures are provided but West Bengal has not submitted 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 a 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 Rs 2,409.96 crore for the rest," it added.

The finance minister had in December said that GST claims of state governments will be cleared once she gets relevant papers with a certificate from their respective AGs. The respective AG has to provide a certificate that the particular state has to get this much compensation, she had said. The West Bengal government rejected the finance minister's claim that the state owes the Centre Rs 1,841 crore for the deployment of CRPF.

"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 the deployment of CAPF personnel for election duty should be borne by the Government of India and not by the States," it added.

Responding to Sitharaman's statement that a reconciliation report is awaited from the West Bengal government in respect of Gram Sadak Yojana, it said all information sought by the Ministry of Rural Development was 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. (PTI)