Covid-19 shadow on 15th Finance panel’s advisory council meet

New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) A virtual meeting of the Economic Advisory Council of the Fifteenth Finance Commission has been convened later this week to take stock of the emerging economic situation in wake of Covid-19 outbreak and its implications on tax buoyancy.

The online meeting of the council has been convened on April 23-24 and will be presided by 15th Finance Commission Chairman, N.K. Singh and attended by all the members and senior officials of the Finance Commission.

The virus outbreak and consequent lockdown throughout the country has wide-ranging implications on the economic activity in the country. For the council, study of the impact of Covid-19 outbreak on economy is of utmost important especially as it would also have its repercussions on tax buoyancy and resultant distribution of revenue among states.

The meeting will discuss Implications of the pandemic for GDP growth in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and uncertainty about macro variables over time.

It will also discuss possible assumptions for tax buoyancy and revenue in the current year and next year and look for answers on what should be the public expenditure fillip to shore up the economy.

The meeting will also be attended by the five members of the council including Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Sajjid Z. Chinoy, Prachi Mishra, Neelkanth Mishra and Omkar Goswami on April 23. The meeting with the remaining Members of the Council will be held on the next day, April 24,.

—IANS

sn/vd