WA 'should be happy' with GST cut

West Australians should be "celebrating" that the State will not lose as much GST to other parts of the country as expected, Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has declared.

Speaking in Parliament, Mr Hockey said there would be a significant improvement in the amount of GST that flowed through to the State when final figures were released in coming days.

_The _ _ West Australian _revealed earlier this month that the Commonwealth Grants Commission would recommend WA get 37.6� for every GST dollar raised in the State through the 2014-15 year.

When the Budget was handed down in August last year, the WA forecast was for just 27� in the dollar.

The improvement should add up to $500 million to the Budget bottom line.

But it will still mean WA will get the lowest share of GST since it was introduced in 2000.

There are complaints out of Victoria, where its share of GST is set to fall to about 88¢ in the dollar.

Mr Hockey, who meets State and Territory treasurers on Friday, said WA had done well out of the grants commission formula for a long time, being a "recipient" State at times in the past two decades.

This had changed recently because WA had done so well out of the mining boom, with the State able to "harness the resources available" for the benefit of WA and the nation.

He confirmed that in the coming distribution of GST, WA would be ahead of where the Barnett Government had initially forecast.

"WA does better than they were expecting," he said. "It is a significant improvement on the State Budget and WA should be celebrating that."

Mr Hockey signalled changes to the GST formula to deliver more to WA would be unlikely.