Andhra finance minister asks for revised GST compensations from Centre

Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has written a letter to the Union minister Arun Jaitley asking for higher compensation citing discrepancy in the revenues considered for the year 2015-16.

"I am to state that the Govemment of India has been transferring compensation amount to the states which did not get projected revenues as per the GST(Compensation to the States) Act,2017 and the state of Andhra Pradesh also got Rs 382 Crore towards compensation so far. I wish to inform that the state of Andhra Pradesh will have to get a higher compensation amount for the following reason," RamaKrishnudu wrote in the letter.

The state finance minister further highlighted that the base year revenue of the year 2015-16 fixed for the state of Andhra Pradesh is required to be modified as certain amounts mentioned under the subsumed taxes are not correctly reflected.

The advertisement tax collected by local bodies and excise duty on medicinal and toilet preparations by state excise department during the year 2015-16 were not taken into consideration, Ramakrishnudu stated in the letter, issued on Sunday.

Further, the Petroleum oil companies paid VAT and CST on Furness Oil, LPG, Kerosene etc. (subsumed under GST), during the year 2015-16, but the same were also included under the revenue of five non GST goods (Petrol, HSD, Petroleum Crude, ATF and Natural Gas) and the relevant revenue was deducted from VAT and CST revenues while arriving at the base year revenue, the letter further read.

It is noticed that Rs 319.67 Cr tax on local sales of Furness 00, LPG, Kerosene etc was not included in the VAT revenues of Rs 11941.34 Crore and Rs. 77.94 Crore tax on interstate sales of Furness Oil, LPG, Kerosene etc was not included under CST of Rs 993.57 crore in the subsumed revenue for the year 2015-16, Ramakrishnudu highlighted.

"Therefore, I request to consider revising the base year (2015-16) revenue as I, 13876.38 Cr and revenue to be protected as Rs 1502.81 Cr per month instead of Rs 1457 Cr per month for the current year 2017-18 and sanction compensation to the state of Andhra Pradesh accordingly," he stated.