A finance commission of India
The Thirteenth Finance Commission of India was constituted by the President of India under the chairmanship of Vijay L. Kelkar on 13 November 2007.[1]
Members
Members of the Commission were:[2]
- Dr. Vijay L. Kelkar, Chairman
- Shri B. K. Chaturvedi, Part-time
- Dr. Indira Rajaraman
- Prof. Atul Sarma
- Dr. Sanjiv Misra
- Shri Sumit Bose, Secretary
Recommendations
The major recommendations of the Commission were:
- The share of states in the net proceeds of the shareable Central taxes should be 32%. This is 1.5 percentage-points higher than the recommendation of the 12th Commission.
- Revenue deficit to be progressively reduced and eliminated, followed by revenue surplus by 2013–2014.
- Fiscal deficit to be reduced to 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014–2015.
- A target of 68% of GDP for the combined debt of centre and states.
- The Medium Term Fiscal Plan (MTFP) should be reformed and made the statement of commitment rather than a statement of intent.
- Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 need to be amended to mention the nature of shocks which shall require targets relaxation.
- Both centre and states should conclude 'Grand Bargain' to implement the model Goods and Services Act (GST).(Task force recommended single positive GST rate of 12% comprising 5% CGST and 7% SGST ) To incentivise the states, the commission recommended a sanction of the grant of Rs500 billion.
- Initiatives to reduce the number of Central Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and to restore the predominance of formula-based plan grants.
- States need to address the problem of losses in the power sector in time bound manner.