NEW DELHI: The government on Monday set in motion the process to form the 16th Finance Commission that will assess the financial position of the states and the Centre to work out the tax-sharing formula.
While the panel that is to be set up every five years is expected to be announced soon after the assembly elections, on Monday it named Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, an lAS officer from the Karnataka cadre, as an officer on special duty for the “advance cell” of the 16th Finance Commission.Pandey, an old finance ministry hand, is currently posted as joint secretary in therevenue department and on promotion, has been posted in the rank of additional secretary in the advance cell.
The establishment of the finance commission will have to be cleared by the Union cabinet, which will decide the terms of reference or the mandate that will be given to the panel, whose recommendations will be implemented from April 2026.
Subsequently, the President appoints the members and the chairman, which works with a full-fledged secretariat that is disbanded after the report is submitted. On November 27, 2017, the government had constituted the 15th Finance Commission and had asked it to submit its report by October 2019.