U’kand incurring a loss of Rs 2241 Crore annually after GST was imposed: Pritam
The Uttarakhand Congress has alleged that the state is facing an economic crisis due to the refusal of the Union Government to compensate the loss incurred to it after the implementation of the new Good and Service Tax (GST) regime. It claimed that the state is incurring a loss of Rs 2241 Crore annually after the GST was imposed. Castigating the union government for not honouring its commitment to compensate for the GST losses, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Pritam Singh said that it has thrown the state into an economic crisis. He said that the state government has failed to put a strong case before the union government for compensation of the GST loss. The PCC president said that on one hand the state is facing natural disasters and on the other hand the farmers are in distress. The state government has to borrow money to pay for the salaries and pensions.
He said that Uttarakhand Government has not fulfilled its promise of loan waivers to the farmers and has failed to provide adequate compensation to the farmers for damage to crops by rain and hailstones.
Criticising the union government for suggesting to the state that they should take loan for GST losses, Singh said that it would have been better had the union government honoured its commitment of compensation to the states.
In a recent meeting of GST councils, the union government had expressed its inability to compensate the states for the expected shortfall of Rs 2.35 lakh Crores. Pritam Singh said that only the states ruled by non NDA parties have opposed the decision of the union government.