Finance Commission expected to be constituted by November end: Finance secretary
New Delhi (PTI): The government is expected to constitute the 16th Finance Commission by end of November, finance secretary T V Somanathan said.
Finance Commission is a constitutional body that gives suggestions on Centre-state financial relations.
It suggests, among other things, the ratio in which tax is to be divided between the Centre and states for five years, beginning April 1, 2026.
"The Finance Commission is expected to be constituted by end of November because that's the statutory requirement," he told PTI in an interview.
Terms of Reference (ToR) for the commission is being finalised, he said.
The previous Finance Commission submitted its report on November 9, 2020, for the 5 fiscals -- 2021-22 to 2025-26 -- to the President.
The 15th Commission under N K Singh had kept the tax devolution ratio at 42 per cent -- at the same level suggested by the 14th Commission.
The central government accepted the report of the commission, and accordingly, the states are being given 42 per cent of the divisible tax pool of the Centre during the period 2021-22 to 2025-26.
The 15th finance commission's recommendations include the fiscal deficit, debt path for the Union and states, and additional borrowing room to states based on performance in power sector reforms.
As per the glide path for fiscal consolidation, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by the 2025-26 fiscal.
For the current fiscal, the deficit is projected at 5.9 per cent of GDP, lower than 6.4 per cent in the last fiscal ended March 31, 2023.
He also said the government will stick to the fiscal deficit target of 5.9 per cent of the GDP as robust tax, non-tax collections will help meet the spending requirement and make up for any shortfall in disinvestment proceeds.
Although there would be a shortfall with respect to disinvestment, he said, this shortfall would be met by non-tax revenue mobilisation.
"Disinvestment target is unlikely to be met. However, I would say in aggregate the collective amount between disinvestment and non-tax revenue is likely to be very close to the budget," he said.
The total of disinvestment receipts, plus non-tax receipts are likely to be very close to the Budget Estimates, he said.
"We expect to adhere to our fiscal deficit target this year...none of the events so far have caused anything for us to deviate from it," he said.
The government has already got a higher dividend from the Reserve Bank of India and expects higher dividends from public sector banks and other PSUs than estimated in the Budget.
The Reserve Bank of India in May approved a Rs 87,416-crore dividend payout to the central government for 2022-23, nearly triple of what it paid in the preceding year. The government was expecting Rs 48,000 crore from the RBI, public sector banks and financial institutions in the current fiscal.
The dividend payout by the RBI was Rs 30,307 crore for the accounting year 2021-22. With public sector banks posting record profits of over Rs 1 lakh crore in fiscal 2022-23, the government's earnings from them are likely to be higher.
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Fire in coach of New Delhi-Chennai express train; no casualty
Nagpur (PTI): A coach of the New Delhi-Chennai Grant Trunk Express caught fire in Maharashtra's Wardha district on Tuesday morning, railway officials said.
There were no casualties, they said.
Train 12616 New Delhi-Chennai (Tambaram) Grant Trunk Express left from Nagpur in the morning. While it was heading towards Sindi railway station in Wardha, smoke was detected in the last guard coach of the train at 11.09 am, Central Railway spokesperson Sanjay Muley told PTI.
The train was stopped on the Sindi-Tuljapur section, the affected coach was detached immediately, and the fire brigade was called, he said.
All passengers in the train and the coach concerned were safe, the official said.
The cause of the fire will be known after a detailed investigation.
The train will resume its journey in some time without the affected coach, the official added.
