The Union government on Wednesday appointed three full-time members including former Finance and Expenditure Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha for the 16th Finance Commission headed by former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya.
Other full-time members of the body that has a mandate to decide the formula for resource sharing between the Cenyre and states and states inter se are former special expenditure secretary Annie George Mathew and Artha Global executive director and former executive editor of Mint, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha.
State Bank of India Group Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh will be a part-time member. Jha will have the unique distinction of working with two previous Finance Commissions, as a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission and as Secretary to the Fourteenth Finance Commission.
Panagariya was appointed on December 31, 2023, to the Commission. Indian Administrative Service officer Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey has been appointed as secretary to the commission.
The Finance Commission will recommend the central tax devolution formula and grants-in-aid to states for five years commencing April 1, 2026. The chairman and other members would hold office from the date on which they respectively assume office up to the date of submission of the report or October 31, 2025, whichever is earlier.
The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the 16th Finance Commission have been kept shorter than the previous FCs as desired by states, finance secretary TV Somanathan said.
This has been done to give the commission much more leeway to take into account all the inputs from experts who appear before the commission, to fashion an award that is within the constitutional frame.