Finance Commission’s tour of State under way

The three-member Fourth State Finance Commission (SFC), headed by C.G. Chinnaswamy, has begun consulting with experts and urban and rural local bodies on the distribution of net proceeds of taxes, duties, tolls and fees collected by the State government between the State and local bodies.

The commission, which has been mandated to review the financial position of urban and rural local bodies, has started a tour of districts to hold consultations with elected representatives and officials of the zilla, taluk and gram panchayats, municipal corporations, city municipal councils, town municipal councils and town panchayats. It will then recommend to Governor Vajubhai Vala measures to strengthen their financial position.

The commission, with H.D. Amaranathan and H. Shashidhar as members and S.R. Umashankar as member-secretary, began its tour on July 27 by visiting Kolar and holding discussions with elected representatives and officials of the local bodies.

It will visit Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts on August 30 and 31, respectively. Its tour will be completed only in December, after which report compilation will begin.

Prior to the finalisation of the recommendations, the commission will interact with its counterparts in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and other States.

The Finance Department had made a presentation to the commission in February this year about the resources of the State government and demands thereon on account of expenditure of civil administration, debt servicing, development and other committed expenditure.

The details of the resources transferred to the local bodies based on the recommendations of the previous SFCs were also provided.

Meeting predecessors

Sources in the commission said that the 4th SFC would also hold discussions with the chairpersons and members of previous SFCs and would consider sponsoring studies on selected issues. The commission will also examine the suitability of using some form of index/indices as the basis for recommendations on tax devolution and grants in aid.

The SFC will make specific recommendation on the award of grants in aid to local bodies from the consolidated fund of the State and suggest measures to improve the financial position of the local bodies.