New Delhi: The Fifteenth Finance Commission led by Chairman N K Singh, on Monday submitted its report titled “Finance Commission in Covid Times” for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 to President Ram Nath Kovind.
Members of the Commission, Ajay Narayan Jha, Prof Anoop Singh, Dr Ashok Lahiri and Dr Ramesh Chand along with Secretary to the Commission Arvind Mehta accompanied the Chairman.
As per the terms of reference (ToR), the Commission was mandated to give its recommendations for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 by October 30.
Last year, the Commission had submitted its report containing recommendations for the year 2020-21 which was accepted by the Union Government and tabled in Parliament on January 30, 2020.
The Commission was asked to give its recommendations on many unique and wide-ranging issues in its terms of reference. Apart from the vertical and horizontal tax devolution, local government grants, disaster management grant, the Commission was also asked to examine and recommend performance incentives for States in many areas like power sector, adoption of DBT, solid waste management etc.
The Commission was also asked to examine whether a separate mechanism for funding of defence and internal security ought to be set up and if so how such a mechanism could be operationalised.
The Commission has sought to address all its ToRs in this Report to the Union government.This Report has been organised 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 roadmap ahead.
