GST compensation cess period already extended till March 2026: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
Bengaluru, Mar 9: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the GST compensation cess period has already been extended till March 2026 to enable the Centre to repay loans taken to compensate all states for the year 2020.
During an interaction with reporters here, she said, "It's not just for me to take a call. It's for the GST council to decide and we have discussed it." The Union Minister was responding to a query on Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's statement requesting the Centre to extend the GST compensation period, which ends in June. Elaborating further, Sitharaman said the GST council has already decided to extend the compensation cess period till March 2026. "It is already extended for paying off the loan, which was taken for all the states, for the compensation that could not be paid in 2020. And again, which could not be somewhat, not fully, paid in 2021," the Finance Minister said.
As for the GST amount between 2020 and 2021, which was due to the states, with compounded interest at 14 per cent each year, she said in view of it, the central government took a conscious decision at the GST council meeting that it will borrow back-to-back and give it to the states.
"Both the loan and the repayment, together with the interest itself, will require compensation cess to be extended till March 2026 and that's what we have done. So the amount collected from the extended cess collection will go towards payment of the compensation amount borrowed and the interest on it," the FM explained.
On the impact on import of edible oil into the country due to the Ukraine crisis, Sitharaman said India is looking for alternatives.
"Edible oil is also an area where we have challenges, where we have to see how we can address it," she said.
India is encouraging farmers in the north east region to grow palm, since the climatic condition there is similar to Malaysia and Indonesia.
We have taken up palm mission and are helping farmers get into production of palm oil in those areas, where palm can be cultivated, because we import huge quantities of palm oil, both the crude and refined, she added.
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Trump claims his administration stopped 'nuclear conflict' between India and Pakistan
New York/Washington, May 12 (PTI): President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his claim that his administration stopped a "nuclear conflict" between India and Pakistan, telling the South Asian neighbours that America will do a "lot of trade" with them if they end hostilities.
"On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons,” Trump said at the start of a press conference in the White House where he announced that he will set 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower cost of prescription drugs.
He started the briefing by describing “the historic events that took place over the last few days" in the Indian subcontinent.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on Saturday to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Indian government sources in New Delhi have been maintaining that the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect. They said no third party was involved.
Trump said that India and Pakistan “were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop.”
"I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases, having these they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation,” Trump said.
The US President said he told India and Pakistan that America will do "a lot of trade" with them if they stop the conflict.
"And we helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. I said, ‘Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade’.”
Trump added that "People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden they (India and Pakistan) said, ‘I think we're going to stop.’”
“And they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We're going to do a lot of trade with India. We're negotiating with India right now. We're going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict,” Trump said.
“I think it … could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. So I'm very proud of that. I also want to thank Vice President (J D) Vance and Secretary of State (Marco) Rubio for their work and efforts, they worked very hard on that,” Trump said.
Trump went on to say that “we did some great things with trade with India and Pakistan. Really helped the situation. Very heated situation. Could have lost millions of people, more than millions, I mean, many millions of people. And they want to do business with America, but we never used our powers that way. Never knew how. We never had people that knew how to do that.”
On Saturday, Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire" after a “long night of talks mediated by the United States."
Later, in a post on Truth Social, Trump offered to work with India and Pakistan for a “solution" on Kashmir, while crediting Washington for helping the two nations arrive at the “historic and heroic decision” of stopping the conflict.
Trump went on to say that even though this has not been discussed, he is going to “increase trade, substantially, with both of these great Nations.”
India has always maintained that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter and there is no space for any third party. India asserts that the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh are and always will be integral and inalienable parts of it.
