GST compensation sunset: Punjab, Goa, Chhattisgarh may face most revenue stress
The HinduWith the sunset of the five-year assured compensation for States under the Goods and Services Tax regime from this month, Punjab, Goa and Chhattisgarh are likely to face the most revenue stress, as per a new working paper by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. The paper, titled ‘Revenue Assessment of GST in India’ by NIPFP associate professor Sacchidananda Mukherjee, notes that revenue collections from the GST regime have fallen short of expectations for both the Centre and the States, but the former made up for this by raising non-shareable taxes and levying cesses on commodities such as petroleum products. “…In absence of revenue compensation, States may face revenue shock and it will impact State finances differently for different States. States where dependence on GST compensation as well as the share of SGST in own tax revenue are higher, they may face relatively higher revenue stress than other States,” the paper pointed out. “This shows that in a federal setup, taxation power to levy taxes helps the federal government to cope up with the revenue shortfall associated with big tax reform like GST.