Fifteenth Finance Commission

The Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV-FC or 15-FC) is an Indian Finance Commission constituted in November 2017 and is to give recommendations for devolution of taxes and other fiscal matters for five fiscal years, commencing 2020-04-01. The commission's chairman is Nand Kishore Singh, a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since March 2014, with its full-time members being Ajay Narayan Jha, Ashok Lahiri and Anoop Singh. In addition, the commission also has a part-time member in Ramesh Chand.

The Fifteenth Finance Commission was constituted by the Government of India—after getting ceremonial approval from President of India—through a notification in The Gazette of India on 2017-11-27. Nand Kishore Singh was appointed as the commission's chairman, with its full-time members being Shaktikanta Das and Anoop Singh and its part-time members being Ramesh Chand and Ashok Lahiri.

The commission held its first meeting on 2017-12-04. Lahiri was elevated to the status of a full-time member in May 2018 and was accorded the status of a minister of state. Das resigned as member on 11 December 2018, to become the Governor of Reserve Bank of India.

In July 2019, the commission's term was extended by a month to November 2019, and its terms of reference (ToR) were expanded by the Union Cabinet and asked it to consider whether "adequate, secure and non-lapsable" funds could be provided for funding defence and internal security, and how would a distinct system to fund defence and internal security be operationalised. It was dissolved on 26 November 2023.

The commission was to submit its Report on the basis of its Terms of Reference (ToR) by 30 October 2019 covering a period of five years commencing from 1 April 2020.

In July 2019, The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the extension of the term of Fifteenth Finance Commission up to 30 November 2019 to enable the commission to examine various comparable estimates for financial projections in view of reforms and the new realities to finalise its recommendations for the period 2020–2025, after taking into consideration, its constitution in the backdrop of various major fiscal/budgetary reforms introduced by the Union Government in the past four years like closure of the Planning Commission and its replacement by NITl Aayog, removal of distinction between Non-Plan and Plan expenditure, advancing the budget calendar by one month and passing of the full budget before commencement of the new financial year i.e. on 1 February, introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 2017 and New FRBM architecture with debt and fiscal deficit path, and also the task of determining the expenditure and receipts of the Union and State governments based on which the Commission shall make its recommendations is time-consuming, as checks for data consistency across time and data sets become challenging.

In November 2019, the Cabinet approved the 15th Finance Commission to submit first report for the first fiscal year viz. 2020-21 and to extend the tenure of 15th Finance Commission to provide for the presentation of the final report covering FYs 2021–22 to 2025-26 by 30 October 2020. The statement by the government cited reasons such as, due to restrictions imposed by the model code of conduct, the commission completed its visit to states only recently, which had a bearing on the detailed assessments of states requirements, comprehensively examining their implications and aligning them to the requirements of the states and the central government will require additional time, and making a five-year coverage available for the commission beyond 1 April 2021, will help both state and central governments design schemes with medium- to long-term financial perspective and provide adequate time for mid-course evaluation and correction.

The first report, consisting of recommendations for the financial year 2020–21, was tabled in Parliament in February 2020.