Jammu and Kashmir records 72% growth in GST collection

The Union Territory has collected Rs 648 crore in the last month as against Rs 377 crore collected in October 2020.

This is the second highest growth rate of GST amongst all the states, Union Territories, in the country.

Earlier in August, Jammu and Kashmir registered a growth of 20 percent in Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collection during the month of August 2021 as compared to corresponding year.

An official said that Goods and Service Tax (GST) revenue collections in the Financial Year 2021-22 has shown a positive growth despite constraints witnessed during the initial months of the fiscal due to Covid lockdown, indicating the revival of business and economic activities here.

Centre has released Rs 1064.44 Cr to Jammu and Kashmir under the back-to-back loan facility, in lieu of GST compensation.

This release is in addition to normal GST compensation being released every 2 months out of actual cess collection by the Centre.

This amount is part of the balance amount of Rs 44,000 Cr which the Government of India released to States and Union Territories (with Legislature) on Thursday to meet the resource gap due to the short release of compensation on account of inadequate amount in the Compensation Fund.

On October 7, Rs 967 Cr out of Rs 40,000 Cr were released to J&K under the same head to meet the GST shortfall.

On July 15 this year, J&K had received Rs 1813 Cr as GST compensation out of Rs 75,000 Cr released by the Centre to States and the Union Territories (UTs) with legislature.

Earlier all eligible states and UTs (with Legislature) had agreed to the arrangements of funding of the compensation shortfall under the back-to-back loan facility for effective response and management of Covid-19 pandemic and a step-up in capital expenditure.

For assisting the States/UTs in their endeavour, the Ministry of Finance had front-loaded the release of assistance under the back-to-back loan facility during FY 2021-22 of Rs 1,59,000 Cr.