5th Finance Commission gets grace period to submit report

Governor grants extension till April 20; appoints new chairman

Ch. Vidyasagar Rao

Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao has granted the State’s Fifth Finance Commission time till April 20 to submit its final report.

“The State commission had in its submission on October 24, 2018, requested the government to extend its tenure up to April 20, 2019,” said Mr. Rao on Friday. Senior officials said Mr. Rao has appointed V. Giriraj, a retired bureaucrat, as the commission’s new chairman.

Improbable target

Last year, the State government had set an improbable 10-month target for the commission and asked it to complete its report by January 27, 2019. The commission was constituted on March 28, 2018 after the Centre pulled up the State for delay in submitting the reports and not implementing the Fourth Finance Commission’s recommendations.

Last year, the Central Finance Commission raised concerns over Maharashtra’s reluctance to devolve greater powers as part of its constitutional responsibility to strengthen governance.

Under the chairmanship of N.K. Singh, the Central team had carried out a two-day visit of the State, raising concerns over issues of inter-regional disparity, slow pace of decentralisation, rigidity in revenue expenditure and debt sustainability.

These reforms were suggested as part of the State’s Fourth Finance Commission. However, the State government had later clarified that the key recommendations of the Fourth Finance Commission was a flat 40% devolution, which considering the resources of the government, salary and other grants given to local bodies, was found “not acceptable”.