Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday that it has released Rs 44,000 crore to states and union territories under the back-to-back loan facility meant to compensate them for the GST shortfall. The Ministry said the total amount released now in lieu of the GST compensation in the current financial year totalled Rs 1.59 lakh crore. It informed that the amount released is in addition to normal GST compensation released every two months out of the actual cess collection.