Join us for the first session of a three-part seminar series on India’s Public Financial Management (PFM) System – Post-COVID-19 need and opportunities for reforms organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) in coordination with the World Bank, as our panel of experts discuss Fiscal Governance.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/6116309298760/WN_mRPSpKK2Tn6k1elhBZ8RrQ

Abstract: The governments at the centre and the state level immediately require considerable resources for dealing with the pandemic and for stimulating the economy. Given the contraction of economy, it would be difficult to raise the additional resources from the regular tax and non-tax revenues. The challenge would be to raise the required resources in a sustainable manner and spend them wisely.

Successive Finance Commissions have paid considerable attention to public debt and issues related to fiscal sustainability because this is an important responsibility of any government. The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) discussed in detail a fiscal consolidation roadmap, particularly keeping in view the crisis brought on by the pandemic and upgrading fiscal governance.

The FFC has made a number of recommendations on fiscal governance (chapter 13 of the XVFC Report 2021-26), especially recommending an overarching legal framework for public financial management and proposing elements of such a system which provides complete, consistent, transparent, reliable, and timely reporting of the fiscal indicators consistent with best practice international standards. In addition to laying down the elements of PFM for the union and the states, the FFC also recommended institutional reforms to strengthen fiscal governance.

Toward this, the FFC underlined building an inter-governmental forum including the centre, states, and critical stakeholders such as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to chart out an action plan for implementing these reforms consistently across the centre and the states.

Among the other institutional measures referred to by the FFC is the establishment of an independent fiscal council, at the central and the state level, to undertake ex-ante assessment.

This webinar will discuss these and related recommendations.

Opening Remarks: Rakesh Mohan, President and Distinguished Fellow, CSEP

Moderator: Anoop Singh, Distinguished Fellow, CSEP

Panelists:

1. N.K. Singh, Chairman, Fifteenth Finance Commission
2. Sean Dougherty, Head of Secretariat, OECD Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government
3. Rajiv Mehrishi, 13th Comptroller and Auditor General of India
4. Yamini Aiyar, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research

Closing Remarks: Junaid Ahmad, India Country Director, World Bank

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.