13th Finance Commission to submit report soon

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: The country’s Thirteenth Finance Commission which is scheduled to submit its report on federal transfer of resources to state governments on December 31, 2009 is likely to make special provision for green budgets for both the state and central governments.

“The 13th Finance Commission will be submitting its report to the President of India, Pratibha Devsingh Patil on December 31, 2009. It would have provisions for federal transfer of resources, including green budgeting as per its terms of reference,” said the Chairman, Vijay Kelkar on Friday at the release of Green India-2047, a report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

TERI is headed by Dr Rajendra K Pachauri who is also the Cairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

In September, the Government had extended the term of the commission by three months up to January 2010. It was earlier required to submit its report by October 31, 2009.

India apart from launching of its National Action Plan on Climate Change is also integrating its climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in other avenues of action.

The Indian environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh said that the 12th Five-Year Plan scheduled to be submitted 2012 will have provision for environment protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

According to sources, bulk of the amount for green budgeting may come from disinvestments of government equities in public sector enterprises. The market value of both listed and unlisted public sector companies is estimated in the range of $ 300 billion to $ 400 billion. About 50% of the corpus can be diverted for green budgeting for public good. Green budgeting can be undertaken for improving mass rapid transport in metropolitian cities, preservation of lakes and forests, fuel and energy efficiency and other mitigation and adaptation measures

Ramesh said that in 2015 country’s GDP formula would be restructured to include the losses due to environment and ecological degradation and also the benefits due to environment conservation.

“Our laws for environment protection are of global standards, but its implementation is below the desired level. The environment governance in the country is largely due to judicial interventions. The executive has almost abdicated its responsibility,” he said.