16th Finance Commission submits report to President

NEW DELHI: The 16th Finance Commission, headed by economist Arvind Panagariya submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu on Monday, setting the stage for rolling out recommendations of the panel from April 1 next year.The report will be available in the public domain once it is tabled in Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Feb 1, along with the budget documents. The panel also handed over a copy of its report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and FM.As per terms of reference (ToR), the commission was mandated to give its report covering a period of five years starting April 1, 2026, giving recommendations on the distribution of net proceeds of taxes between Union govt and the states as well as the allocation of respective shares of such proceeds among the states, grants-in-aid to states, review arrangements on financing disaster management initiatives, among other issues.During its tenure the commission analysed the finances of the Union and states in detail and has come up with a report after wide-ranging consultations with govt, states, local govts at different tiers, chairpersons and members of previous finance commissions, academic institutions of eminence, multilateral institutions, advisory council to the commission and other domain experts. “This report has been organised in two volumes where Volume I contains the recommendations as per the ToR and accompanying annexures are in Volume I,” said an official statement.