Government Appoints 4 Members of Sixteenth Finance Commission

The government has appointed three full-time members and one part-time member of the Sixteenth Finance Commission.

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday appointed four members of the Sixteenth Finance Commission (SFC), which was constituted on December 31, 2023, with Arvind Panagariya, former vice chairman of NITI Aayog, as its chairman.

The full-time newly-appointed members are Ajay Narayan Jha, a former member of the 15th Finance Commission and former secretary of Expenditure; Annie George Mathew, former special secretary of Expenditure; and Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, executive director of Artha Global. Whereas, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor of the State Bank of India, has been appointed as a part-time member of the SFC with the approval of President Droupadi Murmu.

Sixteenth Finance Commission has been requested to make its recommendations available by October 31, 2025, covering an award period of five years commencing on April 1, 2026.

The Finance Commissions are constituted by the President of India under Article 280 of the Indian Constitution to describe the financial relations between the central government of India and the individual state governments.

The Commission was founded under the Finance Commission (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1951. Fifteen finance commissions have been constituted since 1950. Notably, as per the constitution, the commission is appointed every five years and consists of a chairman and four other members.

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