The Centre on Sunday appointed former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya as the chairman of the 16th Finance Commission. Union Finance Ministry Joint Secretary Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey will be the secretary to the panel, according to a government notification.
"The President is pleased to constitute a Finance Commission with Dr Arvind Panagariya, former Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog and Professor, Columbia University, as the Chairman. Members of the Commission will be notified separately," read the notification.
The commission will submit its report for the five-year period between 2026-27 and 2030-31 to the President by October 31, 2025. It includes recommendations regarding sharing of taxes between the Centre and state governments as well as measures to increase revenue. The panel will also review arrangements for financing disaster management programmes under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The 15th Finance Commission led by N.K. Singh had suggested that states should get 41 per cent share of taxes. The recommendations given by the 14th Finance Commission was also on similar lines.
Who is Arvind Panagariya?
Arvind Panagariya is an Indian-American economist who served as vice-chairman of the Niti Aayog from January 2015 to August 2017. He also served as Chief Economist at the Asian Development Bank besides working for the IMF, World Bank, WTO amd the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
He was conferred with the Padman Bhushan in 2012 for his contributions in economics and public policy. He served as India's Sherpa for G20 talks in September 2015.
He earned his PhD in economics from Princeton University. He was the professor of economics at the University of Maryland at College Park. Currently, he serves as the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economic Policies at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City.
