The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the creation of posts for the 16th Finance Commission of India which is responsible for dividing the tax revenues between the central government and the states, official sources said.
The recommendations of the 16th Finance Commission would be in effect from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2031, the sources added.
Earlier, in December 2023, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman, Arvind Panagariya was appointed as the head of the Finance Commission and Ritwik R Pandey was appointed as the Secretary.
Now, three more posts have been created at the level of Joint Secretary (two posts) and Economic Advisor (one post) to assist the Commission in carrying out its functions, the Cabinet said in a release.
The Finance Commission proposes the allocation of taxes and grants, and operates within the guidelines set by the Union Finance Ministry for five years. The Commission also recommends the principles which should govern the grants in aid of the revenues of the states out of the Consolidated Fund of India.
It may be recalled that the 15th Finance Commission was headed by N K Singh and its members were Shaktikanta Das, Ashok Lahiri, Ramesh Chand and Snoop Singh.
