In the delay of Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation to some states the Union Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has attributed to the unavailability of Accountant General (AG)’s authenticated certificates.
As per the Finance minister, within the statute, AG’s certification is mandatory between the Centre, states, and the AG (accountant general), and it is an agreed procedure. Hence, until the authentication is furnished through AG.
When there occurs any issue then the authentication certificate would get delayed in arriving at the central government, FM said.
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The state government would need to do much more to obtain the compensation of the GST she pointed out. “The state governments have to, pardon me using the word, be efficient to sort out things with the AG. But without an AG certificate, beyond a certain limit, it is very difficult for me to go,” she articulated.
As GST compensation to all states, the minister also disclosed that the sum of Rs. 86,912 crores had been disbursed up to May 31, 2022, complying with the GST council’s decision.
FM: For a year now, Kerala has not sent the AG certificate
FM stated her concern for various financial years, regarding the failure of Kerala for sending AG certificates for GST compensation. The southern state does not have sent AG certificates for the compensation of GST for 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 after the introduction of Goods and Services Tax(GST), the minister expressed.
“You have not sent (the AG certificate) even for one year and you keep blaming us that we are not giving you money on time. On the contrary, in the matter of tax devolution, as per the finance commission report, two instalments instead of one have gone to all states. Kerala also benefited from that,” she stated.
After obtaining the certificates, FM Nirmala Sitharaman promised that the payment must get cleared within the stated duration.
The finance minister revealed that for 2017-18 for Tamil Nadu, the AG’s certificate had been obtained and the amount had been disbursed.
