Coal cess part of GST Compensation Fund: Govt

The government today said that coal cess will contribute to the GST compensation fund, a corpus meant for compensating states for revenue losses in the wake of shifting to the new indirect tax regime.
The cess on coal has been continued at Rs 400 per tonne under the GST regime.
"The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017...Notified on April 12, 2017 provides that coal cess, along with some other cess on pan masala, tobacco, aerated water would constitute GST Compensation Fund and the same would be utilised to compensate states for five years for potential losses on account of GST implementation," Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

After five years, any amount left would be shared on 50 per cent basis between Centre and States, the minister said.
The long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST), India's biggest tax reform, was rolled out on July 1.
Replying to a separate question, the minister said that a total of 14,305 gas-based power generation plants are stranded in the country due to non-availability of domestic gas.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoP&NG) has stated that domestic gas is being supplied to the power sector as per current production level and domestic natural gas supply to power sector can improve only in case production levels increase in future and as per prevailing guidelines of the ministry.