Hyderabad, Sep 22 (IANS) Telangana will suffer a revenue loss of nearly Rs 7,000 crore due to revised Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates, which came into effect from Monday, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said and demanded that the Centre compensate the state for the revenue loss.

The Chief Minister said it was not appropriate for the Centre to take unilateral decisions, imposing a burden on states.

He said the Centre should provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for five years. “It’s the responsibility of the Centre to compensate the states that are losing the revenue due to changes in the GST slabs,” he said.

The Chief Minister was replying to a query at a press conference organised to announce bonus for employees of the state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited.

Revanth Reddy said the state government had prepared the plan based on the expected revenues, but the loss of revenue on account of changes in the GST slab would have an impact on the same.

He urged Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy to take up the issue of loss of revenue to Telangana with the Central government.

He said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka would write a letter to the Centre and urged Kishan Reddy to talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and request him to compensate the state for the loss of revenue.

He said when GST was introduced, the Centre had announced VGF for states losing 14 per cent or more revenue. “Now in the second phase of amendments in the GST, the Centre should implement VGF for another five years,” he said.

During the GST Council meeting, the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Vikramarka had submitted a report, highlighting the state’s concerns.

During the 56th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in New Delhi on September 3, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had said that any reduction in the revenues of the states on account of proposed GST rate rationalisation will have a direct impact on essential services like health and education and welfare schemes.

He also stated that this will have an effect on the common man and the middle class. Further, the non-availability of funds for infrastructure projects will have a drastic impact on the development of the states.

–IANS

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