Bihar govt seeks GST compensation extension for another five years

The Bihar government on Wednesday urged the Centre to consider extending for another five years the GST compensation awarded to states, which was discontinued last year.

State Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary flagged it as one of the expectations from the upcoming Union budget.

"Several other concerns were also raised by me at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's pre-budget meeting with state representatives. One of these was, of course, the long-standing demand for special category status to Bihar," Chaudhary told PTI in an interview.

"Another thorny issue has been the increasing load on the states with regard to centrally sponsored schemes. Earlier, the Centre used to bear 90 per cent of the total expenditure," he said.

The ratio has "changed" and, now, states are required to "bear 50 per cent of the financial burden", Chaudhary claimed.

"This is not proper. After all, the Centre claims all credit for such schemes", said the JD(U) leader, whose party snapped ties wi