PANAJI
The much awaited report of the Third State Finance Commission, expected to be tabled in the upcoming Budget session of the State Legislative Assembly, was on Wednesday submitted to the Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.
The five-year plan that will recommend various measures to make local governing bodies like panchayats, zilla panchayats and municipalities self-reliant will be implemented from April 2024 to 2029.
Goa has been on the radar of Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) and XV Finance Commission for being able to constitute only three SFCs during the period 1999 to 2022, as against six due as per the provisions of the Constitution.
In fact, the XV Finance Commission has already declared that no grants would be released after March 2024 to the States that fail to comply with the Constitutional provisions in respect of the SFC.
The Third SFC Chairman retired IAS Daulat Hawaldar informed that the report is being submitted to the Goa Governor on Wednesday. “The report will now come up for discussion before the State Cabinet before being tabling in the House,” he said.
The Commission has focused on measures such as how the local bodies can augment their own source of revenue, while the government can grant them powers to levy and collect taxes and fees.
After almost 12 years, in January 2022, the State government had constituted the three-member Third SFC, which was pending since 2009-10, after the term of Second SFC expired in 2010.
The report was prepared after detail discussion and consultation with all the village panchayats and municipalities including the local elected representatives.
