India News | Assam Govt Allowed to Borrow Additional 2.5pc of GSDP to Nurse 'highly Stressed' Fiscal Health

Guwahati, Sep 2 (PTI) The Assam Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill enabling the government to borrow an additional 2.5 per cent of its GDP for 2020-21, owing to the state's "highly stressed" fiscal situation.

The Assam Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Act, 2020 has also empowered the government to go for an additional borrowing of up to Rs 2,000 crore in view of "reduction in devolution of share of central taxes" for the 2019-20 fiscal.

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"In view of COVID-19 pandemic leading to highly stressed fiscal situation, the state government shall be eligible for additional borrowing up to 2.5 per cent of gross state domestic product (GSDP) for the year 2020-21," the bill stated.

Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in the statement of objects and reasons of the bill that the finance ministry had adjusted Rs 58,843 crore against the states' share of central taxes in 2019-20 on account of lower collection in the previous fiscal.

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"Out of this total amount, Rs 1,949 crore was adjusted for the state of Assam. This one time special dispensation is subject to amendment of state's FRBM legislation for 2019-20," he said.

The assembly also passed the Assam Taxation (Liquidation of Arrear Dues)(Amendment) Bill, 2020 to extend the time limit of availing the benefits of liquidation scheme to July 31 from March 31.

Sarma said the benefits could not be availed due to the pandemic and lockdown imposed across the country.

Further, the House passed the Assam Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020, to supersede an ordinance dated July 28, on the same subject that was promulgated during the lockdown period.

In the statement of objects and reasons, Sarma the bill was necessitated after the Union government amended the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 to offer several reliefs on statutory and regulatory compliances to consumers.

The assembly also passed the Assam Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020 during the day.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)