The Ministry of Finance vide press release dated 29/Nov/2021 has stated that gross GST Collection in FY 2021-22 post COVID-19 pandemic outbreak are showing an increasing trend. The Minister stated the gross GST collection for FY 2020-21 and 2021-22 (till Oct 2021) amounted to Rs. 11,36,805 & Rs. 8,10,816 respectively.

In relation to the compensation cess, the Minister stated that the GST compensation cess levied under Section 8 of the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 is transferred into a non-lapsable Fund known as GST Compensation Fund which forms part of the Public Account of India as provided in Section 10(1) of the Act. The States are being compensated for any loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST for five years out of the Compensation Fund as per Section 10(2) of the said Act. GST compensation for financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 has already been paid to the states, the Minister added.

The Minister stated that the economic impact of the pandemic has led to higher compensation requirement due to lower GST collection and at the same time lower collection of GST compensation cess. GST compensation of Rs. 1,30,464 crores has been released to all States/ UTs to partly meet the compensation payable for the period April’20 to March’21 as the amount in GST Compensation Fund was not adequate to meet the full compensation requirement. This issue of shortfall in release in GST compensation was deliberated in 41^st & 42^nd GST Council meetings and accordingly, Centre had borrowed loan of Rs. 1.1 lakh crore from open market and passed on as back-to-back loan to States/UTs to meet their resource gap due to short release of GST Compensation for FY 2020-21. Similarly, as per deliberation in 43rd GST Council meeting, Centre has borrowed Rs. 1.59 lakh crore loan and passed on to the States/UTs as was done in last year.