more-in The dissolution of Legislative Assembly nine months ahead of its term and the ensuing elections may delay the visit of 15th Finance Commission to the State. The preliminary meeting of the Secretary of Finance Commission was held with the Secretaries of southern States here in March, 2018 to brief officials of States on the data required by the Finance Commission. The full-fledged Commission was scheduled to visit the State by September-end for detailed interactions with the departments based on the reports prepared by them, schemes proposed by them and grants required. Finally, the State would submit its overall memorandum to the Commission later. All this exercise is likely to be delayed due to the ensuing polls in Telangana and four other States. The Finance Department would separately submit a detailed report about the State’s income and expenditure in the last five years, its debt burden, capital expenditure and benefits expected to accrue to the State. The Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Departments, Municipal Administration and Urban Development and other key departments would also submit separate reports, more so with the State seeking direct devolution of funds to mandals and zilla parishads apart from panchayats. The State is working on its memorandum based on the terms of reference of the Finance Commission that made 2011 census mandatory as the basis for devolution of funds to the States instead of 1971, which was the benchmark year for earlier Finance Commissions. Telangana, in fact, would be a gainer from this as its population went up marginally from 1971, mainly owing of migration to Telangana. The Commission is slated to submit its recommendations by October 31, 2019. The recommendations, to be observed for a period of five years, would kick in from April 1, 2020.

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