15th Finance Commission

What's rendering state Finance Commissions so ineffective and toothless?

While the 13th Finance Commission gave a template for preparing the reports of SFCs, it was not acted upon because these are not mandatory recommendations

What's a freebie? Experts dissect basic definition amid SC hearings

'Strain on exchequer arising from sops to industry, bad loan waivers, etc., must be discussed'

Capex loan disbursement to states may rise to Rs 70,000 cr by Q2 end

This is lower than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's expectation Rs 1 trillion would be released by end of September

States' share in central taxes come down to 29-32% against recommended 41%

The previous five years saw the states' share, except for 2019-20, in between 34.5% and 37%, whereas the recommendation was to give them a 42% share

Govt looks to expand debt management cell as PDMA remains in backburner

A top govt official told Business Standard that internally, the plan for PDMA is unlikely to be revived

Rs 1.42-trillion tied grant to villages for water, sanitation: 15th FC

Tied grant 60% of total Rs 2.37 trn allocated to rural local bodies

N K Singh succeeds Manmohan as president of IEG

Singh has been the chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management review committee and also served as member of the Rajya Sabha (2008 -2014)

Best of BS Opinion: Job quotas, banking on slower recovery, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

Banking on slower recovery

The Centre's current deficit glide path reveals a conservative stance on growth

15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh rues lack of fiscal institutions

Says states don't have fiscal flexibility for exigencies as Centre has

Opted for predictability in deciding tax devolution to states: N K Singh

Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi highlighted that the share of divisible pool is slowly shrinking as the ''cess and surcharge'' component in Gross Tax revenue is increasing

Anti-competition law must be strengthened: 15th FC chairman N K Singh

Singh was addressing the sixth edition of the national conference on economics of competition law.

GST rate rationalisation: The larger objective

Besides merging the rate slabs of 12 per cent and 18 per cent, the GST Council could consider phasing out exemptions to those commodities that were subject to VAT duty by the States

Best of BS Opinion: Unfriending big tech, oil's new challenge, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

Beyond the pandemic: The crisis of revenues

Once the pandemic is over, the states need to garner more own revenues to spend more on meritorious heads such as education, health and infrastructure

Course correction

Underperformance of GST must be addressed

Best of BS Opinion: Sugarcane pricing, higher tax-GDP, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

GST Council may take up rationalising tax rates, slab merger in next meet

15th Finance Commission has suggested merging 12 and 18% tax rates

Decoding 15th FC's estimate of mismatch in two sets of salary income data

The Commission asserts salary incomes shown by taxpayers are understated by 50%, finds scope to extract more direct tax by chasing evasion without changing tax rates; experts aren't convinced

Finance commission recommendations aren't a one-day match: N K Singh

In a Q&A, the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission is emphatic that cooperative federalism remains robust and dwells on the possibilty of dividing agro infra cess between Centre and states