15th Finance Commission ends deliberations; to submit report to President, PM Modi in Nov

The NK Singh-led 15th Finance Commission today concluded their deliberations on the Report for FY22 to FY26. The commission had sought time to present its report to President and Prime Minister. It’ll be submitted on November 9. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the report, along with an Action Taken Report of the government, in Parliament. The report contains recommendations pertaining to five financial years, 2021-22 to 2025-26.

“The commission has finalised its report after wide-ranging consultations with the Union and state governments, local governments at different tiers, chairmen and members of previous finance commissions, an advisory council to the commission and other domain experts, academic institutions of eminence and multi-lateral institutions,” an official statement said.

15th Finance Commission was formed by President in pursuance of clause (1) of Article 280 of the Constitution. The commission is headed by NK Singh as chairman, Shaktikanta Das — replaced by Ajay Narayan after Das demitted his office — Anoop Singh, Ashok Lahiri and Ramesh Chand as members and Arvind Mehta as secretary.

NK Singh, along with its members on Wednesday, had held a virtual meeting with the chairmen of two previous Finance Commissions — C Rangarajan and Vijay Kelkar. Rangarajan and Kelkar chaired the 12th and 13th Finance Commissions, respectively.

“The Chairmen of the previous Finance Commissions appreciated the tough challenge faced by the 15th Finance Commission, given the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resultant loss of economic activity and its impact on fiscal parameters of the general government,” the Finance Commission statement said.

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