Review financial position of Panchayats, civic bodies: 5th Pay Commission set up
kolkata: The state government has set up Fifth State Finance Commission, with Prof Abhirup Sarkar as its chairman, to review the financial position of the Panchayats and municipalities.
Apart from Sarkar, four members of the Commission will hold office till March 31, 2023.
The state Finance department has issued a notification in this regard. Apart from Prof Sarkar, the other members are Barnali Biswas, IAS (Retd.), Asis Kumar Chakraborty, WBCS (Exe), (Retd), Ruma Mukherjee, Swapan Kumar Paul, IAS (Retd).
According to the notification, the Commission will review the financial position of the Panchayats and the municipalities and will make recommendations on the distribution between the state and the local bodies of the net proceeds of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees leviable by the state and the allocation at all levels of their respective shares of such proceeds.The notification further states that the Commission will recommend measures needed to improve the financial position of the Panchayats and municipalities.
The commission shall submit its report within six months covering the five years commencing from April 1, 2020, the notification stated.
"In making recommendations, the Commission shall have regard, among other considerations, to—the resources of the State Government and the demands thereon on account of expenditure on administration, development and debt-servicing; the resource-raising
powers of the Panchayats and Municipalities; in the responsibilities entrusted upon the Panchayats and Municipalities by Statutes and Government Orders; awards given by the Central Finance
Commission to the local bodies; grants given by the
state government to the local bodies beyond the recommendation of the State Finance Commission and the Central Finance Commission," read the notification.
The Commission shall determine its own procedure.
The constitution of the commission assumes significance with the Calcutta
High Court recently directing the state government to clear the pending dearness allowance (DA) of West Bengal government employees within three months.
