NEW DELHI: The government has tasked its think tank NITI Aayog to help form a fiscal roadmap for the states post-GST era.“India cannot progress without the help of states. So there is a need to realign the financial goals of the Centre with the states. Going forward, in the next six months, the Niti Aayog has been tasked to reassess the fiscal roadmap of the states after demonetisation,” said a senior official from Niti Aayog.
Niti Aayog will hold separate sessions with the finance ministers of states and will help them frame their financial roadmap and the government has already increased the Budget outlay by 20 percent.
According to the sources, one of the purposes of the exercise will be to reassess the increased share of the Union tax to states.
Earlier on Friday, N K Singh, the chairman of 15th Finance Commission, also hinted that the panel will ascertain whether increasing the share of Union taxes to states to 42 percent along with rationalisation with Centrally Sponsored Schemes, has served its purpose.
The 15th Finance Commission has been asked to recommend, among other things, a roadmap for sound management of government finances.“We will also look at whether the much higher devolution of resources to state governments, raising from 32 percent to 42 percent along with the rationalisation of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), has served the desired purpose. We will certainly address that issue,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by ICRIER here.
The 14th Finance Commission, headed by Y V Reddy had recommended an increase in states’ share in Union taxes. However, in the current fiscal situation, the government was not very happy with it and wanted to review it.
