15th Finance Commission interacts with Members of Parliament today

In its endeavour to increase interaction with various stakeholders, the 15^th Finance Commission today interacted with the Members of the Parliament.

The Meeting was to convey the proposed schedule of the Commission’s work as well as its Terms of Reference (TOR) and also to seek their suggestions on these. Parliamentarians appreciated the inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Disaster Management, Climate Change, progress made in Sanitation, Solid Waste Management and bringing in Behavioural Change to end open defecation among others.

Focus on the Aspirational Districts

Today’s meeting was the First interaction with the Parliamentarians and the process will be continued with further dialogue at State Level. The Members of the Parliament thanked the Chairman,15^th Finance Commission, Shri N.K. Singh and welcomed the meeting.

Parliamentarians gave their views and suggestions to further the consultative process in Delhi as well as in different States. The Meeting assumes significance as 15^th Finance Commission has to work in a very different economic scenario in the light of the fact that Planning Commission is no more there and the distinction between Plan and Non-Plan grants has been done away with.

Wide-ranging suggestions were made by the Parliamentarians including

1. the Status of implementation of the Recommendations of the 14^th Finance Commission, having a relook at the processes and methods to consider the backwardness of a State including the needs of ‘Aspirational Districts’.
2. Providing a Road Map to tackle the overall finances and to also provide a Compensation Roadmap for losses to States due to the implementation of GST.

State consultations to start with Arunachal Pradesh from April 2018

The commission is starting its state-level visits with Arunachal Pradesh in April 2018 and intends to finish the State Level visits by the end of the fiscal year. Since some States will be having assembly elections, visits will be arranged according to that. During State visits, Commission, apart from meeting State leadership and Government officials, will also meet various political parties, local bodies and other bodies.

The Chairman in his remarks outlined the Commission’s responsibility and TOR and solicited their views. He encouraged them to also send any letters and written comments in this regard. The meeting was arranged by PRS which acts as the nodal point for such interactions.