Finance Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry, Punjab and Delhi will meet President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday to submit a memorandum against the “unfair” Terms of Reference (TOR) of the 15th Finance Commission.
Incumbent Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said that the parameters adopted by the commission were discriminatory against the southern States. There have been two rounds of meetings of the Finance Ministers — one hosted by Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac on April 10 and the other by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on May 7.
The States have argued that the TOR was framed without consulting them. The bone of contention is the change in the population base year from 1971 to 2011. The population policy of 1977 promised that no State would be penalised for reduction in the population in distribution of Central funds. Changing the parameter effectively means that States which checked the population growth would get lesser funds than those which are battling the problem.
