Centre to disburse Rs 20,000 crore GST compensation cess to states soon: Sitharaman

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced that the Centre will disburse the compensation cess collected this year within the next few hours. Sitharaman said that the compensation cess, collected this year, amounts to almost Rs 20,000 crores. The cess will come as a relief to cash strapped states.

Briefing reporters after the GST meeting, she said the GST Council has taken up the long-pending issue of Integrated Goods and Services Tax.

Earlier there was no formula for devolution of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST), which had resulted in several anomalies in its distribution, she said.

Moreover, Rs 24,000 crore IGST will be distributed to the states that had received less than their fair share, by the end of next week. The finance minister also said that states that have received more than their due share will not be asked to pay it back.

Rs 24,000 Crores of IGST to be released to the States that had received less earlier, will be disbursed by the end of next week: FM Sitharaman on outcomes of 42nd GST Council meeting https://t.co/s1DrqXeC7E

— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2020

“From the first of January onwards, the taxpayers whose annual turnover is less than Rs 5 crores will not be required to file monthly returns ie GSTR 3B and GSTR1. They will only file quarterly returns,” Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

“The GST Council’s decision to make returns for small taxpayers on a quarterly basis rather than monthly basis will be a major relief to small taxpayers,” he said.

Many states had been demanding clearance of GST dues. Opposition parties had also staged a protest outside Parliament demanding payment of dues. On August 27, the Ministry of Finance had said that the coronavirus pandemic severely hit GST collection, creating a deficit of Rs 2.35 lakh crore for the 2020-’21 fiscal year.