At pre-Budget 2018 meet, states flag drop in revenue on GST roll out

At the pre-Budget 2018 consultations of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with state finance ministers on Thursday, ministers representing state governments run by Congress, Left parties and regional parties flagged the revenue drop faced by states after the goods and services tax (GST) roll out and flagged agrarian distress.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who represented the Janata Dal (United)-Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in his state, demanded more central assistance for key schemes and revise wages for unskilled workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He suggested the Centre advance the fiscal year to start from January 1, and increase income tax exemption limit from Rs 250,000 to Rs 300,000.

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal asked the Centre to announce a farm debt waiver for the entire country on the lines of the one announced by the Congress government in Punjab.

Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac flagged the revenue drop and resource crunch that state governments have faced after the GST rollout, which has impacted the socio-economic spending capacities of states.

Isaac said the Centre has increased central excise by Rs 8 per litre on diesel between 2015 to 2017, and reduced it recently only by Rs 2 per litre. He said none of the states have substantially increased the rate of tax on diesel. Isaac said that in this context it was "unfair" on the part of the Centre to ask the states to reduce the rate of tax when most of the states were faced with financial crisis because of uncertainties related to revenue that accrued to them on the implementation of the GST. He asked the Centre to strictly implement the anti-profiteering measures in the GST. He said any effort to bring stamp duty, one of the few taxes that states can raise, under the ambit of the GST would be "unconstitutional".