States' fiscal health falling apart over shortfalls in GST compensation

Finance ministers of five states jointly complained about the delay in release of goods and services tax (GST) compensation, and held the Centre accountable for this earlier this week. The delayed amount — for all states put together — is more than Rs 20,000 crore.

States are indeed facing shortage in cash flow to run the administration and finance their schemes, as well as capital spending.

Going by official government accounts, while the Centre seems to be fairly comfortable in its GST revenue position, states are in a precarious position, as they have garnered only 38 per cent of