Kozhikode: A three-member team of the 14th Finance Commission will visit the state on December 18 and 19 to discuss the devolution of central funds to the state for five years commencing from April 1, 2015. The members are Dr M. Govinda Rao, Prof. Abhijit Sen and Dr. Sudipto Mundle.
The visit comes at a time when the state is passing through a financial crisis with the revenue collection not showing any buoyancy. The state government will also be required to ward off the negative impact of the recommendations of the composite development index for the states formulated by the Raghuram Rajan committee.
If the Finance Commission accepts the index worked out by the committee as a model, the state is likely to lose heavily as the committee has rated Kerala as one of the top states in the development index.
According to Dr K.K. George, who has studied the impact of Finance Commission awards to the state, the 14th commission is visiting the state at a time when the aggregate “central revenue transfers to the total revenue of Kerala has come down steadily from 29.9 per cent in 2005-06 to 20.3 per cent in 2012-13.”
