NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, DEC 10
The central government on Tuesday changed the composition of the group of ministers (GoM) on IGST (Integrated Goods & Services Tax) settlement with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman opting out of the ministerial panel, CNBC TV18 reported.
The GoM will now be chaired by Bihar deputy chief minister and finance minister Sushil Modi, the report added. It comes amid the ongoing issues being raised by the states related to GST compensation. On December 4, 2019, the GoM was constituted under the chairmanship of Nirmala Sitharaman. The earlier office memorandum (OM) had mentioned Sitharaman as the convenor of the GoM. The status of the IGST will be examined by the GoM which remains un-apportioned as on March 31, 2018. The IGST is imposed on the interstate supply of goods and services.
A number of states — Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry — have raised issues related to the pending share of GST dues. Kerala government. The states claim that the pending dues stand at about Rs 50,000 crore. The finance ministers and representatives of the states even met the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week to discuss the issue. The states are also claiming that un-apportioned IGST had been wrongly used to pay compensation cess.
Meanwhile, the Central GST collection fell short of the budgeted estimate by nearly 40 per cent during the April-November period of 2019-20, according to the latest government data. The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. The minister added that the data was, however, provisional. In 2018-19, the actual CGST collection stood at Rs 4,57,534 crore as against the provisional estimate of Rs 6,03,900 crore for the year, he said. In 2017-18, the CGST collection was Rs 2,03,261 crore.
