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New, improved Financial Commission constituted

The 11th Finance Commission has been constituted by the President under the chairmanship of A N Khusro to revive the state of finances of the Union and the states and suggest ways and means by which the government can restructure the public finances to reduce the budgetary deficit and maintain macro economic stability.

Announcing this in Parliament on Monday, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said the 11th Finance Commission had been mandated to give its report by December 31, 1999, so that the government's decision on its recommendations might be effective from April 1, 2000. The recommendations of the 10th Finance Commission, which had submitted its report in November 1994, were valid till March 2000.

The other members of the commission are N C Jain, J C Jetly and Amaresh Bagchi. T N Srivastav will be the member-secretary of the commission.

Sinha said the terms of the commission under Article 280 of the Constitution would include sharing the proceeds of Central taxes and grants-in-aid to the states. For the first time, the Finance Commission had been mandated in terms of 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution to recommend the measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of the states to supplement the resources of the panchayats and municipalities, he added.

In addition, the commission had been asked to look into a number of issues concering the states' finances such as their indebtedness, calamity relief, requirement for upgradation of standards and pay revision of the state governments' employees. The terms were finalised after ascertaining the views of the state governments, Sinha said.

UNI