ASHLEY DO ROSARIO
PANAJI
The ongoing political and functional impasse in the government owing to the physical isolation of the ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is threatening to hurt the preparations necessary to finalise Goa’s pitch before the 15th Finance Commission.
The three-member 15th Finance Commission headed by former Union Revenue Secretary N K Singh is slated to visit Goa in mid-December. It will consult with the government, Opposition and other political parties besides industry representatives and others on the question of devolution of Centrally collected tax revenues to the States.
Goa’s Finance Secretary Daulat Hawaldar told The Goan that state finance ministry officials are already on the job to prepare the State’s memorandum.
“We are on track. The Commission will visit Goa in mid-December. They have a standard procedure wherein they will meet the Chief Minister, representatives of political parties and other stakeholders. The State will present a written memorandum to the Commission,” Hawaldar told The Goan.
But with Parrikar out of action due to his physically debilitating pancreatic ailment, doubts have now arisen whether Goa will be well placed to articulate before the Commission the State’s arguments and bargain for a better deal in the formula for sharing Central tax revenues.
The 15th Finance Commission is Constitutionally tasked with making recommendations to the Centre on sharing tax revenues with States. Its recommendations will be for the five-year period commencing April 1, 2020 and its role is particularly significant in the backdrop of the implementation of the new GST regime nation-wide. It is expected to evaluate the impact of GST on the finances of States.
Successive Goa governments over decades have voiced the State’s aversion to the overarching weightage given to the population criterion in fund allocation formulae of the Centre.
Goa is at a disadvantage due to its comparatively better performance on the human development front, past governments have argued, just as several other better performing southern States have done in their presentations before the current Finance Commission.
Former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap has questioned the ability of current dispensation to effectively formulate and articulate these and other Goa-specific apprehensions before the Commission.
“The government and administration is tottering due to the Chief Minister’s absence in action. The cabinet is not cohesive on policy matters,” Khalap said and questioned whether the State will be ready to pitch its case before the Finance Commission.
Khalap said, he has set up an apolitical think-tank comprising academicians, chartered accountants and other stakeholders to deliberate on the issues and present to the Finance Commission some aspects that could buttress the State’s claims for better deal.
He argued that without policy and State-specific socio-political inputs from the political arm of the government, the State’s pitch will lack the ingredients needed to catch the attention of the Finance Commission members.
Khalap is also expected to give shape to the memorandum which the Congress, the Opposition in the State legislature, is expected to present before the Commission.
The stress on the State’s economy due to the turmoil in the mining industry is another crucial issue that will have to be presented before the Finance Commission, Khalap opined.
