By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 14. 2020: The centre has allowed Odisha to go for additional borrowing of 0.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

The Centre on Tuesday announced to facilitate market borrowing worth Rs 68,825 crore for 20 States including Odisha, to meet compensation shortfall. These states had chosen Option 1. This is over and above the share of the total compensation borrowing limit of around Rs 1.10 lakh crore to be given to the states.

Principal Secretary of Finance department Ashok K Meena said the permitted amount is the additional borrowing limit allowed by the Centre for the fiscal. The compensation borrowing limit is being worked out, he added.

The additional borrowing limit has been permitted to the states that picked Option 1 under which the Centre would pay interest and principal amount from the cess fund. With this, Odisha is now permitted to go for market borrowing of around Rs 22,000 crore which is four per cent of the GSDP.

Earlier this month, Odisha Government had received Rs 492 crore as GST compensation from the Centre for the first time in last six months out of around Rs 4,500 crore raised by the State. However, there is still no clarity on the payment of compensation dues of around Rs 680 crore pending for 2019-20 and 2018-19.