16th Finance Commission team arrives in Nagaland on three day visit

Members of the 16th Finance Commission arrived in Nagaland on Monday on a three-day visit, an official said.

The Finance Commission team comprising chairman Arvind Panagriya and members Ajay Narayan Jha, Annie George Mathew and Manoj Panda was received at Dimapur Airport by Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton and Chief Secretary J Alam.

During the three-day stay, the Finance Commission team would hold a closed-door meeting with the chief minister, ministers and senior officers in Kohima on Tuesday.

Other than the funds provided to the state through Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), the state government is likely to present to the Commission, demands for grants-in-aid for the next five years, amounting to nearly Rs 1 trillion on various sectors, the official said.

The sectors include revenue deficit grants, funds for local governments to empower the rural and urban local bodies, sector specific grants to supplement expenditures in sectors such as education and health and also state-specific grants given to the specific states for specific projects, the official said.

The demands would be made through a power-point presentation by Additional Chief Secretary and Finance Commissioner Nagaland at the meeting, sources said.

The Finance Commission team will also meet representatives of trade, industries and commerce, rural and urban local bodies and political parties on Tuesday.

They are also scheduled to visit the picturesque Kapamodzu Peak in Phek district to meet women entrepreneurs and get updates of their work on empowerment oriented experiential tourism.

After the three-day stay, the team will leave for Manipur on November 7.

The Sixteenth Finance Commission was constituted on December 31, 2023. The commission has been requested to make its recommendations available by October 31, 2025, covering an award period of 5 years commencing April 1, 2026.