December 18, 2013, New Delhi

Shri Yashwant Sinha, MP & Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance delivered a lecture on the theme “Fiscal Federalism: The Unequal Balance” at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on December 18, 2013.

Shri N K Singh, Member of Parliament chaired the session while comments were provided by Shri B L Mungekar, Member of Parliament and Shri Sunil Mitra, Former Revenue Secretary, Government of India.

”The Planning Commission is the biggest obstacle in the path of federalism. It should be restructured to do perspective planning and implementation without being empowered to micro manage the states’ financing and functioning, which is the task of the Finance Ministry” – Shri Yashwant Sinha, MP & Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance

”Federal practices have not kept pace with changing dynamics and economic realities of the country. There was no credible and viable mechanism at present, for coordination between states and central government. The Interstate Council is defunct” – Shri N K Singh, Member of Parliament