Punjab agrees to borrow under Centre’s proposed option for GST shortfall

Opposition Congress-ruled Punjab Sunday accepted Centre’s proposed GST borrowing option to meet its revenue shortfall, becoming the 26th state to do so after West Bengal and Delhi, which vehemently opposed the proposal earlier.

Under the option, besides getting the facility of a special window for borrowings to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation, states are also entitled to get unconditional permission to borrow the final installment of 0.50% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

This is over and above the special window of Rs 1.1 lakh crore. On receipt of the choice of option 1 from the Government of Punjab, the Government of India has granted additional borrowing permission of Rs 3,033 crore to Punjab (0.5% of Punjab’s GSDP), the finance ministry said in a statement.

Separately, Punjab will get Rs 8,359 crore through special borrowing window to meet the GST implementation shortfall.

States that have opted for option 1 are – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand and West Bengal, along with the three Union Territories of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry, the statement said.