Crucial for federalism

Finance Commissions are central to the Constitution

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has expressed concern that the various Finance Commissions’ recommendations are too inconsistent with one another. Mr Das was earlier a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, and has served as a senior official in the Union finance ministry. He argued that in the past different Finance Commissions had “adopted different approaches on tax devolution” and made grants to states, and that was a problem because more continuity was desired. Presumably in aid of that effort, he made a case for a permanent Finance Commission as opposed to the current system, in which