The funds were released on Thursday. The total amount of compensation released to states and union territories so far this fiscal, including the latest tranche, is ₹1.15 trillion, the ministry said.

This is despite the fact that total GST cess collection till October was only ₹72,147 crore and the balance of ₹43,515 crore is being released by the Centre from its own resources.

With this release, the Centre has released, in advance, the entire amount of cess estimated to be collected this year till March-end available for payment of compensation to states. This decision was taken to help states manage their resources and ensure that their programmes, especially the expenditure on capital, is carried out successfully during the financial year, the ministry said.

In May this year, the central government had released ₹86,912 crore as provisional GST compensation to states for the February-May 2022 period despite the fact that there was only about ₹25,000 crore in the GST compensation fund, by arranging around ₹62,000 crore from its own resources, the statement said.