Economic Advisory Council of 15th Finance Commission to meet on Friday; discuss GDP, GST

New Delhi: The Fifteenth Finance Commission, chaired N K Singh will hold a day long meeting with the Economic Advisory Council of the Commission on Friday to discuss several issues ranging from the country’s GDP and GST compensation to states.

The meeting is for a “Final discussion on GDP growth, tax buoyancy of the Centre and the States, GST compensation, revenue deficit grant and fiscal consolidation,” an official release said.

The members of the Economic Advisory Council likely to attend tomorrow’s meeting are Pinaki Chakraborty, Prachi Mishra, Omkar Goswami, Sajjid Z Chenoy, Neelkanth Mishra, Rathin Roy, D. K. Srivastava, Arvind Virmani, M. Govinda Rao, Sudipto Mundle, Shankar Acharya, Pronab Sen, Krishnamurthy Subramanian.

India’s Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for April-June 2020 slowed down to 23.9 percent, government data showed on August 31.

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation releasing the estimates of GDP for the first quarter (April-June) Q1 of 2020-21, both at Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices said, “GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 26.90 lakh crore, as against Rs 35.35 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20, showing a contraction of 23.9 percent as compared to 5.2 percent growth in Q1 2019-20.  Quarterly GVA at Basic Price at Constant (2011-12) Prices for Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 25.53 lakh crore, as against Rs 33.08 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20, showing a contraction of 22.8 percent”.

Meanwhile, Centre has put forward the option before states, at the 41st GST Council meeting on August 27 to take loan to deal with the shortfall in GST compensation. If states borrow loans for the purpose, then the financial burden would fall on the states.