Proposals will impact Central Budget and those presented by States for 2020-21, says N.K. Singh
The 15th Finance Commission will not alter its approach on solely using the 2011 Census for population figures in its calculations for allocations to States, Chairman N.K. Singh said in an interview.
However, he added that other measures would be included that would ensure that States that have performed well by controlling population growth would not be penalised.
“The final decision is that, as far as we are concerned, the Commission is a recipient of the Terms of Reference (ToR),” Mr. Singh said. “It is not the creator of the Terms. Having received the Presidential Order, we are obligated by the Constitution to act on the basis of the Presidential Order. It is very clear that wherever population has to be used as a criterion, that population should be what is in the Census of 2011.”
“The ToR also do say [we are] to look at incentives for States that have achieved success in terms of replacement rates and better demographic management,” Mr. Singh added. “So we will be looking at that. The intention of the Commission is to try and see that in no way is efficiency and performance penalised, so we will try to see what kind of a balance we are able to come up with.”
The panel will be visiting Telangana on Monday, which would take the total number of States so far visited to 19. After Telangana, the Commission is scheduled to visit Rajasthan. “It is a race against time,” Mr. Singh said.
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