The Ministry of Finance issued a status note outlining the position of Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation released to States and Union Territories since the introduction of GST. The press release reiterates that under the GST (Compensation to States) Act, States are assured compensation for revenue loss for five years based on a 14 percent annual growth over 2015–16 revenues, funded through a compensation cess levied on select goods such as tobacco, coal, pan masala, and automobiles. It highlights that compensation payouts increased steadily from about ₹49,000 crore in 2017–18 to ₹83,000 crore in 2018–19 and ₹1.65 lakh crore in 2019–20, before rising sharply in 2020–21 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on revenues. To ensure States had adequate resources during this period, the Centre borrowed ₹1.1 lakh crore in 2020–21 and ₹1.59 lakh crore in 2021–22 and passed these amounts to States as back-to-back loans. Including this assistance, ₹2.78 lakh crore of compensation was released for 2020–21, with no pending dues for that year. Overall, the Centre has released ₹7.35 lakh crore to States so far, and only ₹78,704 crore remains pending for 2021–22 due to temporary shortfall in the compensation cess fund, which will be cleared as further cess collections accrue.