Issues before Twelfth Finance Commission

The setting up of the Twelfth Finance Commission has once again drawn attention to the core issues of determining tax devolution and grants. It is not as if the issues are entirely new, but the problem of balancing resources against responsibilities is qualitatively different now when governments at all levels are nursing large and rising revenue deficits. With current trends indicating a continuing deterioration, how are these core issues to be addressed? The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy has been organising seminars on the major issues before the successive Finance Commissions for several years now in collaboration with the Finance Commissions. The papers presented in the seminars have so far been published by the Institute itself in the form of edited volumes. A departure from this practice is now being made by bringing out selected papers, originally presented in the seminar on 'Issues before the Twelfth Finance Commission' held at New Delhi on September 29-30, 2003.