TN also allowed to borrow to meet GST compensation shortfall

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) The Union Finance Ministry on Wednesday permitted Tamil Nadu to raise an additional amount of Rs 9,627 crore through open market borrowings towards GST compensation.The permission was issued by the Expenditure Department after the state formally communicated its acceptance for Option 1 to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, a government statement said.With this, 21 states have now been allowed extra borrowings under the first option suggested by the Centre to settle the GST compensation in a year when revenue from compensation cess is expected to fall sharply.On Tuesday, the Expenditure Department had issued permission to 20 states to raise an additional amount of Rs 68,825 crore through open market borrowings. With the addition of Tamil Nadu, 21 states and two Union Territories (Delhi and J&K) will now mobilise Rs 78,542 crore.The borrowing permission issued to the states is over and above the borrowing permission of around Rs 1.10 lakh crore to be issued to enable the states to meet the revenue shortfall arising out of GST implementation. A special window is being created by the Finance Ministry to facilitate this borrowing.The current additional borrowing permission has been granted at the rate of 0.50 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to those states who have opted for Option 1 out of the two options suggested by the Ministry of Finance.Under the terms of Option 1, besides getting the facility of a special window for borrowings to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, states are also entitled to get unconditional permission to borrow the final instalment of 0.50 per cent of GSDP out of the 2 per cent additional borrowings permitted by the Centre, under Aatmanirbhar Abhiyaan on May 17. This is over and above the special window of Rs 1.1 lakh crore.The 20 states who were granted the permission on Tuesday are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
--IANS sn/vd