15th Finance Commission submits report to President

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 5

The 15th Finance Commission today submitted a partial report for the next fiscal (2020-21) to President Ram Nath Kovind. Later in the day, the report was tabled in Parliament.

The commission was to submit the report for five fiscal years but the government opted to receive the first report only for fiscal 2020-21 on the grounds that it had to rework its recommendations because of the re-organisation of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Commission’s task has been made harder because of several changes such as the closure of the Planning Commission, its replacement by NITl Aayog, removal of distinction between Non-Plan and Plan expenditure, advancing the Budget calendar by one month and passing of the full Budget before the commencement of the new financial year, introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and New FRBM architecture with debt and fiscal deficit path.

The full report, for which it has been given time till October 30, 2020, will recommend how much of the Central government’s divisible pool of tax revenue should be shared with states for the financial years starting FY22 till FY26. It will also suggest how to apportion the resources among states depending on their development needs.