The Finance Ministry said Monday that a new member will be appointed to the 16th Finance Commission in lieu of the earlier announced member Niranjan Rajadhyaksha. This comes less than a week after the first meeting of the 16th Finance Commission, which was held on February 14, where Rajadhyaksha was not in attendance.
Rajadhyaksha is presently Executive Director, Artha Global and was appointed as Member in the 16th Finance Commission through a notification dated January 31, 2024. “Dr. Rajadhyaksha has expressed his inability to take up this responsibility due to unforeseen personal circumstances,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry said action will be taken to appoint a member of the 16th Commission in lieu of Rajadhyaksha.
In January, the government had announced the appointment of three full-time members and one part-time member of the Commission. In December last year, it had announced the appointment of former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Arvind Panagariya as Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission. It had also announced Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, a 1998-batch IAS officer, as Secretary of the Commission.
Former Finance and Expenditure Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha, who was also the member of 15th Finance Commission, was appointed as a full-time member along with Annie George Mathew, former Special Secretary in Department of Expenditure and Rajadhyaksha. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor of public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI), was appointed as a part-time member in the Commission.
The Finance Commission mainly decides the tax sharing formula between the Centre and the states. The 16th Finance Commission is expected to submit its recommendations by October 31, 2025, covering an award period of five years beginning April 1, 2026.