The 15th Finance Commission led by its Chairman NK Singh here on Monday submitted its report for fiscal years 2021-22 to 2025-26 to President Ram Nath Kovind.
Commission members Ajay Narayan Jha, Anoop Singh, Ashok Lahiri, and Ramesh Chand, along with panel Secretary Arvind Mehta accompanied the Chairman in the meeting with the President.
Last year, the Commission had submitted its report consisting of recommendations for the 2020-21 fiscal, which was accepted by the Union government and tabled in Parliament on January 30, 2020.
As per the terms of reference (ToR), the Commission was mandated to give its recommendations for the five-year period by October 30.
The Commission was asked to give its recommendations on many unique and wide-ranging issues. Apart from the vertical and horizontal tax devolution, local government grants, disaster management grants, the Commission was also asked to examine and recommend performance incentives for states in many areas like the power sector, adoption of DBT, solid waste management, etc.
The panel was also asked to examine whether a separate mechanism for funding of defense and internal security ought to be set up and, if so, how such a mechanism could be operationalized. The Commission has sought to address all its ToRs in the latest report, organized in four volumes.
Volume I and II, as in the past, contain the main report and the accompanying annexes. Volume III is devoted to the Union government and examines key departments in greater depth, with the medium-term challenges and the road map ahead. Volume IV is entirely devoted to the states.
The Commission analyzed the finances of each state in great depth and came up with state-specific considerations to address the key challenges that individual states faced.
The report entitled ‘Finance Commission in Covid Times’ uses scales on its cover to indicate the balance between the states and the Union.
