The role of State Finance Commissions in building regional equity and strengthening the federal framework. Discuss.

State Finance Commissions, constituted under 73rd Constitutional Amendment, act as financial planners for the state and local governments. Role: augmenting financial resource access to State and local government (2) Allocation of resources to the: ─ vertical extent (State, local) ─ horizontal (inter-district & departmental) (3) Advisory aid to panchayats on increasing revenue via viable tax effort. eg school, tax planning, etc. (5) Regional imbalance correction via planned financing and cross-subsidised regional development eg Western UP, Eastern UP development gap.

Underutilized potential: D) Not concluded across all state. ─ live to discretion of state 4) Lesser devolution to prd level government. (Governance & Financial unjustly (JMM daylog) 5) Toothless before state's decision-making paraphernalia. 6) Lack of integrationist working with central Finance Commission (Art 260) via autonomized working. 7) Lack of best practice exchange among states. 8) Misidentified developmental need of states - underspecialized and much. Special purpose vehicle oneaft wayforward movement of subjects from voluntary to mandatory (Art 243) ─ time-bound question of SFCs integration of central → state FCs SFCs hold potential for financial performance enhancement and better federal relations.

— ZINNIA AURORA · AIR 6