NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said lower-than-expected realisation of GST cess was delaying compensation to states as she reiterated that the Centre was committed to making the payments. She also made it clear that the Centre was not discriminating between states as the law entitled them to compensation in case their GST collections grew at under 14%.

“There cannot be any tweaking here. The formula (for tax devolution) is given by the finance commission and the formula (for compensation) is given by the GST Act... That has nothing to do with me saying, I don’t like XYZ state, so, I won’t give... But if the revenue collection itself has gone down, of course the portion which goes to states will be smaller,” she said at the Times Now Summit.

The statement comes amid complaints by states like Bengal, Kerala and Punjab over delay in payment of compensation.

Pointing to some “green shoots” in the economy, Sitharaman said the Centre and RBI are making constant efforts to boost consumption. On concerns over rising unemployment, she said the government is set to come out with “comprehensive jobs data” that will enable it to pinpoint the areas that need corrective measures.

