FGG urges Guv to direct CS to take action on SFC report

Hyderabad:The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) on Thursday requested Governor Jishnu Dev Varma to direct the Chief Secretary to take action on the State Finance Commission (SFC) reports along with the action taken report and place it in the ensuing Assembly sessions.

The FGG president, M Padmanabha Reddy, said Article 243-I of the constitution mandates the Governor to constitute a finance commission to review the financial position of the panchayats and ULBs and to make recommendations to the Governor for distribution of the net proceeds of the taxes of the State between the State and local bodies (panchayats and ULBs).

According to GO 31 dated March 16, 2015, the government constituted the State Finance Commission. The Governor shall cause every recommendation made by the SFC, together with an explanatory memorandum as to the action taken thereon, to be laid before the State legislature.

Studying the financial position of the local bodies, the SFC has sent its reports to the Governor and his office in turn sent it to the government for action on the recommendations and to place the reports along with the action taken report in the legislature, Reddy said. He described it as very unfortunate that since the last nine years the government has not taken any action on SFC recommendations and not placed a single report of the commission in the legislature. Nobody knows the recommendations of SFC, and the action taken by the government on the recommendations.

The 15th Finance Commission releases grants directly to the gram panchayats.

The commission had categorically stated that “No grants will be released to local bodies of a State after March 2024 if the State does not constitute the state finance commission and act upon its recommendations.

Again, since the last two years, the State government was also not releasing any funds to gram panchayats, with the result that the panchayats were not getting funds either from the State or from the Central government,” Reddy stated.