New Delhi, Dec 4 (KNN) Finance Minister of a few states met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss Goods and Services (GST) compensation here on Wednesday.

These states had already raised concerns over delay in payment of GST compensation by the Centre in the last month.

Reportedly, after the meeting, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the Minister didn't inform why there is delay in the GST compensation.

''Centre owes Delhi Rs 3,600 crore for three months," Sisodia said.

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said, along with August and September's compensation,  October and November are too due, while Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot said that centre owes  nearly Rs 3,000 crores GST compensation to his state for August to November.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Education Minister Subhash Garg said that like other states Rajasthan too facing the same issues adding that ''central government owes about Rs 4,000 crore GST compensation to Rajasthan for August to November."

The meeting also saw, Puducherry, and representatives of the governments of Kerala, Chattisgarh and West Bengal.

Notably, in the last month, these state had demanded to release the GST compensation and raised concerns over the delay in payment for the same.

After five non-BJP ruled States, who had raised concerns, over delay in payment of GST compensation by the Centre in the last month, the same issue was brought to the Parliament by Punjab and West Bengal Members of Parliament (MPs)

Both MPs from Punjab and West Bengal had raised the issue of Centre not releasing the State’s share of compensation under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Rajya Sabha and said it leading to a severe financial crisis like delay in release of salary and pension.

“GST compensation, which used to be given every month initially, has now been made once in two months. We were expecting compensation for August and September sometime in October. October went past and November is about to finish. There is no explanation from the Central Government. This is not the way a modern country runs,” Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa had said.

Further, the MP informed that the GST compensation due to Punjab is Rs 2,100 crore.

While on the other hand, Trinamool Congress’s Manas Ranjan Bhunia had said GST collections have fallen short of the Rs 1 lakh crore target and demaned Finance Minister's statement in the House on the same.

“Our State, West Bengal, has been suffering for the last two months. It is not getting the share of compensation of the GST meant for the State,'' Bhunia had asserted.

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