Finance Commission Chairman has a request for FM Nirmala Sitharaman    

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that a request has been made by the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission for setting up a fiscal council for better coordination between the GST Council and the Finance Commission.

"I find a very powerful case is being made for a fiscal council. NK Singh (the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission) speaks of the need for coordination between the GST Council and Finance Commission through another institution," she said while speaking during a book discussion on 'Recalibrate: Changing Paradigms' authored by NK Singh.

GST, which replaced multiple taxes by the central and state governments, was rolled out in July 2017. Currently, the GST Council - comprising finance ministers of all states - takes all the decisions with consensus. Union Finance Minister acts as chairperson of the council.

Sitharaman said that across the world there is a positive recognition that India's institutions can rise to the occasion and address stress points of the economy. She said the center-state relationship is also continuously happening through the GST Council and the Finance Commission.

On a question of whether the world is now ready to recalibrate, Sitharaman said that a series of global calamities directly affecting the financial sectors have made this debate necessary. She said it was time for multi-lateral institutions to make themselves relevant through recalibration. The finance minister said that many multi-lateral institutions are on the verge of irrelevance now, hence recalibration is needed.