Govt agrees to compensate states for CST revenue losses

29 Jan 2013 Evaluate

The government has agreed to make a significant concession in compensating state governments’ revenue loss on account of the reduction in the central sales tax (CST). The chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, Sushil Kumar Modi, said that States have agreed to the compensation formula suggested by the Centre for their CST revenue loss for implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Sushil Kumar Modi said that Centre has agreed to full CST compensation for 2010-11, offset 75% of states’ CST losses in 2011-12 and 50% for 2012-13. The compensation formula has been prepared on the basis of the August 22, 2008, guidelines.

Contradictory to the move of containing fiscal deficit, now the centre will have to shell out about Rs 34,000 crore for compensating states for the three years. Significantly, the government has also dropped its earlier stand that it would deduct from the compensation amount any revenue gain states may have made by increasing state-level value-added tax or VAT from 4% to 5%.

Regarding the delay in introduction of GST, Modi said that States are not responsible for the delay in introduction of GST because they have lost heavily on account of gradual cut in the CST. The Empowered Committee has also asked the Centre to prepare a payment schedule. Some States are of the view that they should revert to the earlier 4% CST to make up for the huge losses in case there is a delay in introduction of GST beyond April 1, 2014.

Meanwhile, the states having manufacturing base and mineral export are the worst sufferers due to the gradual cut in CST. States that have lost more than Rs 1,000 crore include Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Haryana.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×