Monday: Legal Aptitude at High Altitude
The appointment of the 15th Finance Commission by the (1.1) under Article 280 of the Constitution was notified on November 27, 2017.The Finance Commission consists of a Chairman and Four other members to be appointed by the (1.2). The Commission has continued with the approach and methodology adopted by the previous Commissions for (1.3).
The constitution of 15th FC has been in backdrop of various major fiscal and budgetary reforms introduced by Union Government in past 4 years such as closure of Planning Commission (PC) and its replacement by NITl Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), removal of distinction between Non-Plan and Plan expenditure, advancing budget calendar by 1 month and passing of full budget before commencement of new financial year i.e. on 1 February, introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 2017 and New Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) architecture with debt and fiscal deficit path. ). It has made projections of revenues and revenue expenditures of the (1.4), applied selective norms to the latter, recommended devolution of taxes to the States from the divisible pool, and recommended revenue deficit grants for the States which had post-devolution gaps.
ToR of FC takes into account above fiscal and budgetary reforms. The task of determining expenditure and receipts of Union and State governments based on which FC(1.5) shall make its recommendations is time consuming, as checks for data consistency across time and data sets become challenging. There was considerable controversy over the terms of reference of the Commission requiring it to use (1.6) population in its formula by the States that had taken initiatives to arrest population growth.
1.1) In the given passage, the authority responsible for appointment of Finance Commission is/are
a) Governor of concerned state
b) Chief Minister of State on the advice of Council of Ministers
c) President of India
d) Prime Minister of India on the advice of Council of Ministers
1.2) In the given passage, Finance Commission is made for the purpose of
a) Tax Evasion and Revenue Deficit planning
b) Tax Surplus Planning and Revenue-gap grants
c) Tax Devolution and Revenue-gap grants
d) Tax Devolution and Revenue Deficit Planning
1.3) In the given passage, Finance Commission decides share of Tax Between
a) Union Territories and States
b) Union Territories and Foreign Territories
c) Union and individual states
d) Individual States and Rest of the States
1.4) With reference to this passage, 15th Finance Commission is headed by
a) Shaktikanta Das
b) Michael Patra
c) N.K Singh
d) None of the above
1.5) In the given passage, 15th Finance commission is proposed to use the Census of the year of
a) 2001
b) 2021
c) 1991
d) 2011
1.6) With reference to Finance Commission, it share Tax in the manner of
a) Horizontal Devolution
b) Vertical Devolution
c) Both a & b
d) None of the above
Answers
1.1 - C
1.2 - C
1.3 - C
1.4 - C
1.5 - D
1.6 - C
