President Droupadi Murmu appointed 4 members (3 full-time members and a part-time member) to the 16th Finance Commission (FC), a constitutional body responsible for recommending the distribution of federal taxes among states.
Members:
i.3 full-time members:
- Ajay Narayan Jha, Former Secretary of the Department of Expenditure and Former Member of 15th FC;
- Annie George Mathew, Former Special Secretary of the Department of Expenditure; and
- Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Executive Director of policy consultancy firm, Artha Global.
ii.Part-time member: Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser at the State Bank of India (SBI).
Note:
i.The 16th FC is tasked with submitting its comprehensive report by 31 October 2025, covering 5 years, commencing on April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2031.
ii.The Chairman and members of the 16th FC would hold office from the date on which they respectively assume office up to the date of submission of the report or 31 October 2025.
About Ajay Narayan Jha:
i.He is a 1982-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Manipur Tripura cadre.
ii.In 2018, he was appointed as the finance secretary, and in 2019, he joined the 15th FC as a member.
iii.He had also served as the secretary to the 14th FC which was headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Y V Reddy.
About Annie George Mathew:
i.She is a 1988 batch Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer.
ii.She served as Additional Secretary of the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
About Niranjan Rajadhyaksha:
i.He served as Research Director and a Senior Fellow at the Mumbai (Maharashtra)-based IDFC Institute.
ii.Previously, he was Executive Editor of Mint, a financial daily.
iii.He was also a member of the advisory committee on the 5th volume of the official history of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Recent Related News:
i.The Government of India, has constituted the 16th Finance Commission of India with Dr Arvind Panagariya, former Vice-Chairman(VC), NITI Aayog(National Institution for Transforming India)(2015 to 2017) as Chairman. Read now
ii.The Union Cabinet has approved the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Sixteenth/16th Finance Commission (FC), whose recommendations, spanning a 5-year period from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2031, will be submitted by October 31, 2025. Read now
About Ministry of Finance:
Union Minister– Nirmala Sitharaman (RajyaSabha Karnataka)
Ministers of State– Pankaj Chaudhary (Constituency: Maharajganj, Uttar Pradesh); Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad(Rajya Sabha Maharashtra)
