Finance Commission to deliberate on GDP growth, GST compensation

Chairman N K Singh and the members of 15th Finance Commission will hold a day long meeting with the Economic Advisory Council of the Commission on Friday, an official statement said.

New Delhi: The 15th Finance Commission will hold a meeting with its economic advisory panel on Friday to discuss issues of GDP growth, GST compensation and fiscal consolidation.

Chairman N K Singh and the members of 15th Finance Commission will hold a day long meeting with the Economic Advisory Council of the Commission on Friday, an official statement said.

The topic of the meeting is 'Final discussion on GDP growth, tax buoyancy of the Centre and the States, GST compensation, revenue deficit grant and fiscal consolidation,' it added.

The members of the Economic Advisory Council who are likely to attend the meeting include Pinaki Chakraborty, Prachi Mishra, Omkar Goswami, Sajjid Z. Chenoy, Neelkanth Mishra, Rathin Roy, D.K. Srivastava, Arvind Virmani, M. Govinda Rao, Sudipto Mundle, Shankar Acharya, Pronab Sen and Krishnamurthy Subramanian.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of India's GDP growth contacting 23.9 per cent in April-June quarter.In the corresponding quarter of last financial year, the Indian economy had grown at a rate of 5 per cent.

Besides, fiscal deficit has already crossed budget estimates at the end of July.

The Centre's fiscal deficit during April-July stood at Rs 8.21 lakh crore or 103 per cent of 2020-21 budget estimates of Rs 7.96 lakh crore.

The issue of GST compensation payable to states would also be discussed in the meeting.

The Centre has given two options to the states -- to borrow either from a special window facilitated by the RBI or from market -- to meet the Rs 2.35 lakh crore GST shortfall, and has also proposed extending the compensation cess levied on luxury, demerit and sin goods beyond 2022.

The compensation due to the states in April-July period stood at Rs 1.50 lakh crore.

(With PTI and IANS inputs)