Three years since the grand launch of the GST regime in 2017, the government has for the first time admitted that it has no money to pay the state governments their share of GST revenues as was prescribed by the GST law. Since August 2019, much before the lockdown, the economic situation has been such that GST collection is almost half of what is due to the states. Solutions include either raising taxes on some items or bringing exempted items under the tax net... The government admitted that much before the coronavirus-triggered economic slowdown, “since the end of August 2019, the central government started realising the impending precarious position in paying GST compensation to the states and UTs as the compensation cess requirement was being double of the average monthly cess collection”. On an average, the monthly GST compensation cess requirement was to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore while the cess collection average was only in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 crore per month.
Rahul Shrivastava, 'Govt tells panel it has no money to pay states their GST share, raises alarm among Opposition', India Today
