Former Modi adviser, Columbia U Professor Panagariya appointed as India’s new finance panel head

- ADVERTISEMENT -

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian government on Sunday, December 31, 2023, appointed Arvind Panagariya the chairman of new Finance Commission that will recommend how federal taxes will be shared with states.

In 2017, Panagariya, an Indian-born, U.S.-educated economist, resigned from the government’s main policy think-tank, after he was hand picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead the newly created body that replaced the former planning commission that drew Soviet-style five year economic plans.

Every five years, India sets up a Finance Commission to suggest the formula for sharing of taxes between the federal and state governments, and make recommendations on public finances.

Presently, India shares 42% of federal taxes with states.

“The Commission shall make its report available by October 31, 2025 covering a period of five years commencing on the 1st day of April, 2026,” the government order said.

Addon by News India Times:

Panagariya is the Professor of Economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. A recipient of India’s Padma Bhushan award, Paagariya served from January 2015 to August 2017, as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Government of India in the rank of a Cabinet Minister. He previously served as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and was on the faculty of the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1978 to 2003. During these years, he also worked with the World Bank, IMF and UNCTAD in various capacities. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University.