Kolkata, Feb 26 (KNN) West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has criticised the centre for delays in release of funds to West Bengal under the centrally sponsored schemes.

“West Bengal was supposed to get GST compensation of Rs 2,406 crore for January. But we didn’t get that. We are afraid we may not get the GST compensations for February and March. Moreover, the Centre is depriving West Bengal of its due share of taxes (from the divisible pool),” he said speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a CII event here.

“We have not yet received Rs 37,973 crore from the Centre on account of the centrally sponsored schemes,” he added.

Mitra, also said he is concerned that GST cess, amounting to Rs 11,000 crore for February-March 2020 will not be paid by the centre as it has fallen severely short of its targeted collection.

“This fiscal, the Centre has reduced West Bengal’s share by Rs 11,000 crore in tax devolution. On the other hand, revenue from the Central cesses and surcharges (which are not required to be shared with states) have increased three fold in the last five years. This is against the spirit of federalism”, he added.

He said the Centre was in a denial mode, when it came to accepting the the reality of the state of the economy.

The minister alleged that on account of the faulty design in the GST structure, taxation fraud is going up.

“People are forming false companies to defraud GST collection. GST was implemented in a haste without doing any beta testing. This has resulted in fraudulent transactions taking place across the country. Suspicious transactions are also going up”, he said.

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