: The chief ministers of six non-BJP-ruled states have written to the centre to remind it of its "constitutional" responsibilities in the stand-off over the ₹ 2.35 lakh crore shortfall in GST compensation and financial relief (from the pandemic) due to states. Mamata Banerjee (Bengal), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), Edappadi K Palaniswami (Tamil Nadu), K Chandrasekhar Rao (Telangana) and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) rejected re-payment options - that states borrow to offset dues - and reminded the centre it had a legal duty to reimburse states' loss of revenue in the first five years of the GST regime. They said if states were to borrow then repayment schedules would place an extra burden on their finances. The centre, they said, could take up this burden and pay back the loan by carrying forward GST cess collection past 2022.
