Centre owes Telangana Rs 2,812 crore: Harish Rao writes to FM Nirmala over IGST share

Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday shot off a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, alleging that the Centre was not giving the state what was due. In his letter, Harish Rao pointed to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report from 2017-18 which showed that there were huge unsettled balances in the Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST). He then pointed out that the GST Council, in its meeting held on January 25, 2018, recommended advance settlement of Rs. 35,000 crore to the Centre and the states on provisional basis based on the revenue from taxes of the states. This was proposed to adjusted in ten equal instalments against regular settlement, and was due in 2018-19. However, the Telangana government has now protested the manner of the settlement."The procedure followed by the Centre apart from being unconstitutional has deprived the states of their due share in IGST and has adversely impacted their revenues," Harish Rao wrote."The due share of Telangana in IGST works out to Rs 4,464 crore. But Telangana state has received only an amount of Rs 1,652 crore. The balance amount receivable by the state of Telangana is Rs 2,812 crore," he added. Stating that thus, there was a shortfall in revenue of Rs 2,812 crore to the state government, Harish Rao went on to write, "Most of the states have also witnessed shortfall because of the above transfer procedure followed. However, they have received compensation due to shortfall of revenue. But Telangana is one of the few states which did not receive any compensation in 2017-18 and 2018-19." He then requested the Finance Minister to issue orders to the appropriate authorities, to ensure that the amount be released to the state government at an early date.