FINANCE COMMISSION
HOLDS MEETING OF ECONOMISTS AND ECONOMIC ADMINISTRATORS
The 12th
Finance Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan
held a meeting of economists and economic administrators on various
aspects of the terms of reference of the Commission, here today.
Some of the issues discussed in the meeting include the criteria
for sharing of resources between the Centre and the States, implications
of the gap filling approach for giving grants-in-aid, relatives
merits of alternative methodologies of projection, the criteria
for determining transfer of resources to local bodies and the
implication of the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) at State
level. The pros and cons of the Medium Term Fiscal Reform Programme
and of conditional versus unconditional grants were some of the
other aspects which were deliberated upon.
It has been the practice
of Finance Commissions to elicit views of economists and economic
administrators on current issues concerning inter-government resource
transfers. The meeting was attended by a total of seventeen eminent
economists and economic administrators based in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. The participants included
Dr. Shankar Acharya, Dr. J.L. Bajaj, Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya,
Prof. S. Gangopadhyaya, Dr. Janak Raj Gupta, Prof. Om Prakash
Mathur, Prof. P.N. Mehrotra, Dr. C.S. Mishra, Dr. Sudipto Mundle,
Prof. Pulin Nayak, Dr. Mahesh Purohit, Prof. Indira Raja Raman,
Prof. Atul Sarma, Dr. Tapas Sen, Prof. A.K. Singh, Dr. Narain
Sinha and Dr. Charan Wadhwa. Shri Sompal, Shri T.R. Prasad and
Prof. D.K. Srivastava, members of the Commission were also present.
The Commission propose
to hold similar meetings in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata to elicit
the views of economists and economic administrators in those regions.
