GST compensation cess period already extended till March 2026: FM

Bengaluru: 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.