Stay the course

FC's final report should mirror the interim award

On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the first report of the Fifteenth Finance Commission in Parliament for the financial year 2020-21 alongside her presentation of the Union Budget. The Finance Commission’s terms of reference had become something of a controversy, given that they departed in several important criteria from previous iterations. Among the states’ concerns were that the Commission was told to stop using population weights from the 1971 Census, and instead use more recent relative population numbers — which significantly disadvantages those states in the south that have done better on family planning. It was also suggested that