The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 amended the Right to Information Act, 2005. The RTI Act, 2005 specified the tenure, terms of service and salaries of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs) at the central and state levels, in the parent law. The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 removed these provisions and stated that the central government will notify the term and quantum of salary through rules.[1],[2]
The Right to Information Rules, 2019 were notified on October 24, 2019.[3] These rules set out the tenure, terms of service and salaries of the CIC and ICs at the state and central levels. Table 1 compares the provisions related to the tenure and salary of the CIC and ICs under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and the Right to Information Rules, 2019
Table 1: Comparison of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and the Right to Information Rules, 2019
|
Provision |
RTI Act, 2005 |
RTI Rules, 2019 |
|
Term |
The CIC and ICs (at the central and state level) will hold office for a term of five years. |
The CIC and ICs (at the central and state level) will hold office for a term of three years. |
|
Salary |
The salary of the CIC and ICs (at the central level) will be equivalent to the salary paid to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners (Rs 2,50,000 per month) Similarly, the salary of the CIC and ICs (at the state level) will be equivalent to the salary paid to the Election Commissioners (Rs 2,50,000 per month) and the Chief Secretary to the state government (Rs 2,25,000 per month), respectively. |
The CIC and ICs (at the central level) shall receive a pay of Rs. 2,50,000 and Rs. 2,25,000 per month, respectively.
CICs and ICs (at the state level) shall receive a pay of Rs. 2,25,000 per month. |
Source: The Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service of Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners in the State Information Commission) Rules, 2019; The High Court and the Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 2017; Indian Administrative Services (Pay) Rules, 2016; PRS.
[1] Right to Information Act, 2005, https://rti.gov.in/rti-act.pdf.
[2] Right to Information (Amendment Act), 2019, file:///C:/Users/Dell/Downloads/The%20Right%20to%20Information%20(Amendment)%20Bill,%202019%20Text.pdf.
[3] The Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service of Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners in the State Information Commission) Rules, 2019, http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/213438.pdf.
The Finance Commission is a constitutional body formed by the President of India to give suggestions on centre-state financial relations. The 15th Finance Commission is required to submit two reports. The first report will consist of recommendations for the financial year 2020-21. The final report with recommendations for the 2021-26 period will be submitted by October 30, 2020. In this post, we explain the key recommendations of the report.
What is the amount of tax devolution to the states, and how is it being calculated?
The Finance Commission uses certain criteria when deciding the devolution to states. For example, income distance criterion has been used by the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions. Under this criterion, states with lower per capita income would be given a higher share to maintain equity among states. Another example is Demographic Performance criterion which has been introduced by the 15th Finance Commission. The Demographic Performance criterion is to reward efforts made by states in controlling their population.
The 15th Finance Commission used the following criteria while determining the share of states: (i) 45% for the income distance, (ii) 15% for the population in 2011, (iii) 15% for the area, (iv) 10% for forest and ecology, (v) 12.5% for demographic performance, and (vi) 2.5% for tax effort. For 2020-21, the Commission has recommended a total devolution of Rs 8,55,176 crore to the states, which is 41% of the divisible pool of taxes. This is 1% lower than the percentage recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Table 1 below compares the new criteria with the criteria recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Table 1: Criteria for devolution (2020-21)
|
Criteria |
14th FC 2015-20 |
15th FC 2020-21 |
|
Income Distance |
50.0 |
45.0 |
|
Population 1971 |
17.5 |
- |
|
Population 2011 |
10.0 |
15.0 |
|
Area |
15.0 |
15.0 |
|
Forest Cover |
7.5 |
- |
|
Forest and Ecology |
- |
10.0 |
|
Demographic Performance |
- |
12.5 |
|
Tax Effort |
- |
2.5 |
|
Total |
100 |
100 |
Sources: Report for the year 2020-21, 15th Finance Commission; PRS.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have received the largest devolutions for 2020-21, receiving Rs 1,53,342 crore, and Rs 86,039 crore respectively. Karnataka and Kerala saw the largest decreases in the share of the divisible pool with a decrease of 0.49% and 0.25% respectively. Table 2 below displays the state-wise breakdown of the share in the divisible pool and the total devolution.
Table 3: Share of states in the centre’s taxes
|
State |
14th Finance Commission |
15th Finance Commission |
Devolution for FY 2020-2021 |
||
|
Share out of 42% |
Share in divisible pool |
Share out of 41% |
Share in divisible pool |
(In Rs crore) |
|
|
Andhra Pradesh |
1.81 |
4.31 |
1.69 |
4.11 |
35,156 |
|
Arunachal Pradesh |
0.58 |
1.38 |
0.72 |
1.76 |
15,051 |
|
Assam |
1.39 |
3.31 |
1.28 |
3.13 |
26,776 |
|
Bihar |
4.06 |
9.67 |
4.13 |
10.06 |
86,039 |
|
Chhattisgarh |
1.29 |
3.07 |
1.4 |
3.42 |
29,230 |
|
Goa |
0.16 |
0.38 |
0.16 |
0.39 |
3,301 |
|
Gujarat |
1.3 |
3.1 |
1.39 |
3.4 |
29,059 |
|
Haryana |
0.46 |
1.1 |
0.44 |
1.08 |
9,253 |
|
Himachal Pradesh |
0.3 |
0.71 |
0.33 |
0.8 |
6,833 |
|
Jammu and Kashmir |
0.78 |
1.86 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Jharkhand |
1.32 |
3.14 |
1.36 |
3.31 |
28,332 |
|
Karnataka |
1.98 |
4.71 |
1.49 |
3.65 |
31,180 |
|
Kerala |
1.05 |
2.5 |
0.8 |
1.94 |
16,616 |
|
Madhya Pradesh |
3.17 |
7.55 |
3.23 |
7.89 |
67,439 |
|
Maharashtra |
2.32 |
5.52 |
2.52 |
6.14 |
52,465 |
|
Manipur |
0.26 |
0.62 |
0.29 |
0.72 |
6,140 |
|
Meghalaya |
0.27 |
0.64 |
0.31 |
0.77 |
6,542 |
|
Mizoram |
0.19 |
0.45 |
0.21 |
0.51 |
4,327 |
|
Nagaland |
0.21 |
0.5 |
0.23 |
0.57 |
4,900 |
|
Odisha |
1.95 |
4.64 |
1.9 |
4.63 |
39,586 |
|
Punjab |
0.66 |
1.57 |
0.73 |
1.79 |
15,291 |
|
Rajasthan |
2.31 |
5.5 |
2.45 |
5.98 |
51,131 |
|
Sikkim |
0.15 |
0.36 |
0.16 |
0.39 |
3,318 |
|
Tamil Nadu |
1.69 |
4.02 |
1.72 |
4.19 |
35,823 |
|
Telangana |
1.02 |
2.43 |
0.87 |
2.13 |
18,241 |
|
Tripura |
0.27 |
0.64 |
0.29 |
0.71 |
6,063 |
|
Uttar Pradesh |
7.54 |
17.95 |
7.35 |
17.93 |
1,53,342 |
|
Uttarakhand |
0.44 |
1.05 |
0.45 |
1.1 |
9,441 |
|
West Bengal |
3.08 |
7.33 |
3.08 |
7.52 |
64,301 |
|
Total |
42 |
100 |
41 |
100 |
8,55,176 |
Sources: Reports of 14th and 15th Finance Commission; PRS.
What are the various grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission?
The Terms of Reference of the Finance Commission require it to recommend grants-in-aid to the States. These grants include: (i) revenue deficit grants, (ii) grants to local bodies, and (iii) disaster management grants.
14 states are estimated to face a revenue deficit post-devolution. To make up for this deficit, the Commission has recommended revenue deficit grants worth Rs 74,341 crore to these 14 states. Additionally, three states (Karnataka, Mizoram, and Telangana) have received special grants worth Rs 6,674 crore. The special grants are being given to compensate for a decline in the sum of tax devolution and revenue deficit grants in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.
The Commission has recommended a total of Rs 90,000 crore for grants to the local bodies in 2020-21. This amounts to an increase over the Rs 87,352 crore allocated for 2019-20 for the same. The new allocation is 4.31% of the divisible pool. Of this sum, Rs 60,750 crore has been recommended for rural local bodies, and Rs 29,250 crore for urban local bodies. These grants will be made available to all three tiers of Panchayat- village, block, and district.
To promote local-level mitigation activities, the Commission has recommended the setting up of National and State Disaster Management Funds. Recommended grants for the State Disaster Risk Management Fund is Rs 28,983 crore, while the allocation for the National Disaster Risk Management Fund is Rs 12,390 crore.
Apart from these, guidelines for performance-based grants and sector-specific grants have been outlined. The Commission has recommended a grant of Rs 7,375 crore for nutrition in 2020-21. Sectors for which sector-specific grants will be provided in the final report include: (i) nutrition, (ii) health, (iii) pre-primary education, (iv) judiciary, and (v) railways.
For more details, please see our summary of the report.
