CM urges FM to continue release of funds in the form of Excise Duty

Raipur, Feb 16: Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has urged her to continue the provision of release of funds being paid to Chhattisgarh in the form of Excise Duty as done earlier.
CM in his letter has mentioned that the FY 2020-21 was difficult year from financial stability point-of-view due to adverse effects generated from Covid-19 pandemic. So with negative an effect on all the economic activities in this FY there are obvious chances of reduction to the tune of around 30% of financial resources in the state. CM Baghel in the letter informed FM that with reduction in the petroleum products, gold-silver, and other products in the central budget and in its place has made declaration to imposed ‘agriculture infrastructure development cess’. This is expected to cause loss of around Rs 900 cr to Rs 1000 crore to the state in the next FY.
Baghel further in the letter to FM mentioned that in FY 2020-21 the state government is yet to receive Rs 3700 crore worth of GST compensation. Similarly the central government had earlier declared to purchase 60 lakh MT of paddy and later carried out deduction of 16 lakh MT in the state’s rice quota. Due to this the state is expected to face huge loss in utilization of additional paddy collected in the state.
CM in the letter said that imposing of Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess’ is a welcome step, but by reducing Excise Duty it will have negative effect on the state’s financial resources. As such the state is already facing financial crisis and with additional loss due to reduction in the Excise Duty will have adverse an effect on various pro-people welfare and development works in the state. CM has urged the FM that in view of limited resources with states for revenue generation, the amount being paid to state in the form of Excise Duty should continue as done earlier, so that the state need not face any additional financial loss.