The third meeting of the Advisory Council of the Fifteenth Finance Commission was held in New Delhi on Friday.

It was chaired by N.K. Singh, Chairman, XVFC and attended by Members of the Advisory Council and Members of the Commission and senior officials of the Commission.

In the meeting the Council Members were updated by the Commission on the progress made in terms of State Visits by the Commission, consultations with the RBI, with Bankers and financial institutions, with stakeholders and domain experts.

Discussions were also held on the structure of the Commission’s Report and the ToR-wise mapping of the Report.

Issues of Public Sector Borrowing Requirement(PSBR), issues concerning GST and its implementation, transparency in publishing accounting data related to debt and deficit, possible trajectories of debt consolidation of the General Government, impact of UDAY on state liability, dynamic interaction between fiscal deficit, inflation, interest rates and private investments were also discussed in detail.

Views of the Members were sought on possible scenario for macro variables like GDP projections and economic outlook during the award period of the Commission i.e.2020-21 to 2024-25. The meeting also analysed a presentation made by Dr. Sajjid Z. Chinoy on Public Sector Borrowing Requirement, in today’s meeting.

N. K. Singh announced that there would be three more meetings of the Council, one after the formation of the new government, one after the formal submission of the Memorandum of the Government to the Finance Commission and the last before the final report of the Commission is submitted to the Government.