Finance Commission

The Fifteenth Finance Commission recommendations on local bodies, particularly those relating to urban local bodies, are a dampener. The recommendations lead to an anomalous situation of a least urbanised state getting higher per capita urban grants. Similarly, the segmentation of urban grants into too many components and very rigid conditions leaves a big question mark on grants utilisation.

The budget speech on 1 February 2021 announced an allocation of over `2.2 lakh crore to health and well-being, at 137% higher compared to BE 2020–21. The Fifteenth Finance Commission emphasised the need for strengthening the COVID-19-ravaged health sector by recommending sector-specific grants. The government did not accept the recommendation and, if we discount the health component in the local government grants, the budget allocation for the sector has increased by hardly 10% compared to the 2019–20 actuals.

In all federal structures, the composing units are not self-sufficient financially. But, in India, the economic dependence of states on the centre is rather high because of widespread disparities in their levels of economic development. The federal transfers to the states through the Finance Commission, Planning Commission and centrally-sponsored schemes are investigated. The role of the union government in equitable direct investment, subsidy, and private investment policy for unbiased regional development is also underlined . The data proves that although the Finance Commission’s transfers are progressive, the share of devolution for low-income states is gradually decreasing. Unfortunately, all other transfers and efforts by the centre are regressive to address the regional inequality issues.

Analysing the second Karnataka budget since the Fourteenth Finance Commission award, it is noted that, as assured, more fiscal space is made available to the state government. With greater untied funds, the state has budgeted for higher capital expenditure in some key areas--urban development, police, and tribal welfare--even as it failed to build capacity for power generation, and has introduced too many schemes with too little funds allocated to each.

Sharp deterioration in state finances during the last decade - as evidenced by sharp increases in revenue, fiscal and primary deficits, increases in their indebtedness and contingent liabilities, and decline in capital and maintenance expenditures - has been a matter of serious concern to policy-makers. Low buoyancy of central transfers and spillover of central pay revisions have had the most adverse impact on state finances. However, the states' own fiscal performance has also seen sharp deterioration. On the transfer system, the scheme proposed by the ministry of finance attempts to link a portion of transfers to fiscal reforms. There are serious design issues in the scheme. It is not certain whether the scheme will be effective either. The paper details the areas of reform the states should focus on to impart efficiency and improve revenue productivity and prioritisation and compression of unproductive expenditures.