Chennai: The GST Council’s third attempt to resolve the impasse over pending dues to States also reportedly ended without a resolution on Monday night.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said the Centre is ready to help the States who have decided to borrow to bridge the cess shortfall.
She said, ‘There was no consensus arrived on a matter on which differences exist. The GST Council can certainly take a call on cess, extending the period of cess collection. That was repeatedly reiterated but among the members themselves, the question was — can the GST Council decide if the Centre should borrow or the States should borrow.’
Nirmala said the Finance Ministry was ready to facilitate the States who have decided to borrow themselves to meet urgent spending to counter the pandemic.
The single-point agenda of Monday’s GST Council meeting, held between the council chairperson (Nirmala Sitharaman) and the State finance ministers over video conferencing, was to decide on the issue of compensation cess.
Last week’s meeting had gone into more than eight hours without a resolution, with both sides digging in and refusing to cave in.