The GST's uncertain future
India TodayThe true test of leadership comes in times of adversity—the ability to develop consensus when the going gets tough. On November 27, 2019 the GST council wrote to state governments, informing them that GST and compensation cess collections in the previous few months had become ‘a matter of concern’ and that compensation requirements were ‘unlikely to be met’. The GST compensation payment of Rs 35,298 crore for August-September 2019, which was due in October, was finally paid in December; payments for October and November 2019 were released in February and April 2020. So far, the finance ministers of Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Kerala have rejected the Centre’s options on GST compensation. At the meeting on October 5, the GST council decided that the levy of GST compensation cess should be extended beyond the transition period of five years, for whatever period required for the revenue gap to be met.