Goa govt demands arrears from Centre

The Goa government has urged the Centre to give the state its share of pending dues since 2011, which amounts to around Rs 300 crore.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in a meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi yesterday discussed the issue, a senior government official said today.
"The state did not raise any fresh demands. What we want is whatever dues which are pending with the central government should be given to us," the official said.
He said the state is expecting around Rs 300 crore from the Centre for reduction of Central Sales Tax (CST) for the last three years.

He said the Centre had agreed to compensate the states for CST loss and did the same from 2007-08 and 2009-10. It also compensated for 2010-11 but after deducting the national gain calculated on the basis of hike in VAT rate from four to five per cent, but stopped this in 2011-12.
Parrikar during the meet with Jaitley also raised Goa's concerns of not being able to take benefits of the central government sponsored schemes due to 'fair parameters in the state.'
"Goa is better on most of the parameters which makes it ineligible to enjoy the benefits of several central government schemes," he said.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Finance ministry to reconsider certain parameters while granting the benefits to states like Goa.