Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (20 January) authorised the release of an advance installment of tax devolution to state governments amounting to Rs 47,541 crore, said an official release.

This is in addition to the regular devolution for the month of January 2022, also being released today, the release added.

The states would receive a total of Rs 95,082 crore or double their respective entitlement during the month of January 2022, the Finance Ministry said in a release.

The Centre had earlier released the first advance instalment of tax devolution amounting to Rs 47,541 crore to states on 22 November 2021.

With the release of the second advance installment today, the states would have received an additional amount of Rs 90,082 crore under tax devolution over and above what has been budgeted to be released till January 2022, the ministry said.

The ministry added that release of the back-to-back loan amounting to Rs 1.59 lakh crore to state governments by the Centre in lieu of GST Compensation shortfall in FY 2021-22 was completed by the end of October 2021.

According to the ministry , the move is in line with the Centre's to strengthen the hands of states to accelerate their capital and developmental expenditure to ameliorate the deleterious effects of CoVID-19 pandemic.