Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the Central government will release one-third of Chhattisgarh’s balance CST compensation of Rs2,157 crore as first installment in this financial year. During a meeting with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in New Delhi on Thursday, Jaitley said that one-third of the balance CST compensation will be released to the State this year and the remaining will be released in two installments during the next two years.
The Chief Minister had requested the Finance Minister to expedite release of long pending compensation of Rs2,157 crore to the State for revenue loss due to phasing-out of Central Sales Tax (CST). Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Aman Kumar Singh was also present in the meeting. The Chief Minister raised the issue of additional royalty to be given to states due to cancellation of coal blocks.
He also demanded reinstatement of deduction of Central Tax revenue of the State and discussed various issues such as increase in allocation of funds for modernisation of police force, SRE and fly-ash bricks to be kept free from central production tax. Chhattisgarh Resident Commissioner BV Uma Devi, Joint Secretary to Chief Minister Rajat Kumar and OSD Vikram Sisodiya were present in the meeting.