Thiruvananthapuram: Kollam MP N K Premachandran, who on Monday sought details from Union Finance Minister in Lok Sabha on total amount allotted to Kerala in IGST in the past five years, on Tuesday said that Kerala Finance Minister was hiding truth.
Premachandran said Balagopal should explain whether Kerala is not getting its share of GST due to the non-submission of required documents as alleged by Nirmala Sitharaman.
“The minister should make it clear whether the state has got the expenditure revenue committee's report. If so, are we losing around Rs 5,000 crore as Integrated GST every year? If we are why are losing that amount? Rather than making the reasons clear, CPM and the finance minister are making it a political issue.
Though in the question part Premachandran mentioned that he was asking about IGST, in the introduction he mentioned about the delay in state getting GST compensation.
Sitharaman replied that delay was due to Kerala's non-sumbission of AG’s authentication since 2017-18 for "GST compensation".
GST compensation is the amount decided by the GST Council to balance the revenue slump due to the imposition of GST. It ends this financial year. IGST, on the other hand, is the 50% share of each GST trade accrue to states.
Later in the day, Premachandran said that Union Finance Minister raised a legitimate question. "Why was Kerala blaming the Centre for the mismanagement of the state finances," he asked.
This irked Balagopal who responded that Kerala had no dispute with the union government regarding GST compensation. "Only Rs 750 crore is due in this category. Some people are hiding the real issues by highlighting non-existent complaints," he said.
