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Financial Commission of India

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What is the 15th finance commission?

The Financial Commission is acknowledged as an independent and self-regulatory organization besides EDR (external dispute resolution) body that has dedicated itself to Forex. Though an EDR body does not regulate the Financial Commission, it operates in a manner where education, swiftness, and transparency turn into paramount values. The job of the Financial Commission is to ensure that brokers and traders have been getting their controversy solved in an efficient, quick, authentic, and unbiased manner while ensuring that they proceed forward with some well-founded answers. So, it contributes to their general knowledge regarding Forex and CFDs (Contracts for Difference).

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The terms of reference of 15th Finance Commission

The 15th Finance Commission terms of reference are combining the FX brokers, and they know that ideal conduct would turn into the topmost value that is needed in every deal. Additionally, it produces smarter and educated traders who are aware of the factors that make things work. Financial Commissions have formed a straightforward and transparent approach towards self-regulation in the markets of digital currency. They also propose various dispute resolution services between exchanges, financial firms, and traders for free.


When companies join the Financial Commission, they become successful in signifying their commitment to upholding the higher principles of commercial honour beside the finest business practices to conduct their business irrespective of their locations and licenses. These activities always come together to form a more credible and cleaner environment for Forex.

An overview of the 15th Finance Commission

The 15th Finance Commission is also the current Finance Commission, and it was constituted in the year 2017. This has been formed for giving recommendations for the decentralization of taxes besides various other fiscal components for the 5 fiscal years that commenced from 01 to 04-2020. The Chairman of the commission is Nand Kishore Singh. The full-time Finance Commission members are Ashok Lahiri, Ajay Narayan Jha, and Anoop Singh. Ramesh Chand is a part-time member of this commission. Shaktikanta Das worked as an active member of the Commission, and he worked from November 2017-December 2018.

The constitution of the 15th Financial Commission

The Government of India constituted the current Finance Commission that is the 15th Finance Commission, after it got the ceremonial sanction from the Indian President via a notification that is mentioned in The Gazette of India on 27-11-2017. 


The first meeting of the present Finance Commission was held on 04-12-2017. Lahiri got the position to serve as a full-time member in the year 2018, and it was according to a state minister status. However, on the 11th of December 2018, Das resigned from turning into the RBI Governor.


In July 2019, the term of the commission was broadened by one month to Nov. 2019. The Union Cabinet stretched its ToR (Terms of Reference) too and asked whether secure, non-lapsable, and adequate funds can be proposed to fund internal security and defence. Again, it also asked the manner in which the security will be operated and how a distinct system would fund defence.

Difference between 14th and 15th Finance Commission

In November 2020, the fifteenth Finance Commission did submit its ultimate report. This also submitted a descriptive memorandum that encompasses its responses to the 15th FC’s recommendations. The Indian government accepted the recommendations of the Finance Commission regarding local governments that include municipalities. The fifteenth FC also issued grants of an amount of Rs. 1.55 lac crore to municipalities.


The recommendations of the fifteenth Finance Commission on municipalities are a good reason for which you need to pay attention. They are far-sighted, imaginative, and bold. There are 5 particular recommendations via which the fifteenth FC has devastated the present status quo. Some recommendations are:


  • Remarkable augmentation in funds provided to cities. In the 15th FC, Rs. 1.55 lac crore is granted over a 5-year period beginning from the financial year 2021-22 to 2025-26. And so, there is a 78% augmentation of grants from the period of the fourteenth Finance Commission. The fourteenth FC granted 4.32% to the local Govts, in which 30% was granted to municipalities. Contrarily, the 15th Finance Commission has assigned 4.15% of the divisible pool to the local governments.

  • Efforts are made for mainstreaming Metropolitan Governance since 74th CAA 1992 that comprises 100% outcome that funds Rs. 38,000 crore for fifty million-plus UAs (Urban Agglomerations). The method in which the fifteenth Finance Commission incentivized its concentration on metropolitan governance happens to be educational. The Fourteenth Finance Commission had set aside twenty percent of its issuance in the form of performance grants that were tied to the improvement of revenue, audited accounts, and service-bench benchmarks disclosure. 

  • A couple of game-changer entry conditions pertain to the issuing of the audited yearly accounts. Forming on reform measures of earlier FCs, the fifteenth Finance Commission has made a serious and bold attempt to take this program to its logical conclusion. 

  • State FCs are the same as the Union FC for the state level, and they were brought forward via the seventy-fourth CAA in the form of an institutional mechanism for ensuring formula-based. Hence, it is predictable, and so, fair fiscal transfers are made to municipalities and panchayats. Nonetheless, the majority of the states haven’t nurtured them into some credible institutions. Only 15 states have formed the 5th or the 6th SFCs. Additionally, many states haven’t yet moved beyond the 2nd or 3rd SFC. 

  • The Ministry of Urban Affairs and Housing had conceived as well as carried out a Service Level Benchmark structure across 4 areas of sanitation, water supply, stormwater drains, and solid waste management that comprise nearly 30 indicators. More than 1000 municipalities all across 5 states publish these. The 14th Finance Commission had comprised the publishing of service-level benchmarks as a performance grant situation; it ensured the much-needed continuity of policy for improved quality data. The fifteenth FC too concentrates on the requirement of digitizing municipal accounts on a combined view of the finances of the municipal sector at both levels that comprise state and union.

15th finance commission

  • The 15th Finance Commission was formed on the 27th of November, 2017. The tenure of Finance Commission is 5 years.

  • The Chairman of the fifteenth FC is Nand Kishore Singh.

  • The full-time Finance Commission composition comprises members, and they are Ajay Narayan Jha, Anoop Singh, and Ashok Lahiri.

  • The part-time member is Shaktikanta Das, and he is the person who worked as an FC member from November 2017-December 2018. Again, Ramesh Chand too is a part-time member of the 15th Finance Commission.

  • The 15th Finance Commission Secretary is Shri Arvind Mehta.

  • The 15th Finance Commission period is five years. The 15th Finance Commission duration begins from the Financial Year 2021 to Financial Year 2026. Its annual report was being generated in 2020-21.

  • The parent department of the 15th FC is the Dept. of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Finance.

  • The President of India forms the 15th FC.

  • The 15th FC has its headquarters at Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan in New Delhi. Its offices are provided security by the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force).

FAQs on Financial Commission of India

1. What are the two reports that the present 15th FC is needed to submit?

The present 15th FC was needed to submit a couple of reports. The 1st report will have the recommendations that are needed for FY 2020-21, while the second, as well as the final report, will carry recommendations for FY 2021-26. It was submitted by the 30th of October 2020.

2. What are the aims of the 15th Finance Commission?

The 15th Finance Commission was formed for giving recommendations for the delegation of taxes as well as various other fiscal matters for 5 fiscal years that commence from the 1st of April, 2020. The chief jobs of the commission are strengthening cooperative federalism, protecting fiscal stability, and improving public quality. Mr N.K. Singh, the chairperson of the commission, declared that there must be some mechanisms via which the GST Council and the Finance Commissions must coordinate for ensuring that there are several benefits of higher growth trajectories.

3. What is the designation of Chairman of the 15th FC?

Nand Kishore Singh is the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, and he is a retired IAS or Indian Administrative Service officer. Singh served in the form of a Union Affairs Secretary & Union Expenditure Secretary, and Union Revenue Secretary. Again, he also worked as the erstwhile Planning Commission’s member. After Nand Kishore Singh retired, he turned into a Rajya Sabha member for Bihar. In 2014, he became the BJP’s senior member.

4. What does the report of the 15th FC comprise?

The report of the 15th FC is arranged in 4 volumes. Both Volume I as well as II comprise the chief report besides the associated annexes. Volume III has dedicated itself to the Union Govt. and it tests some key departments that are in great depth. Volume IV is dedicated to the states totally. The FC has analyzed the finances of every state in greater depth and has come forward with some considerations that are state-specific for addressing the key challenges that states face. The public domain will get the report when the Parliament tables it besides the explanatory action or memorandum report that the report contains.