The Chairman of the  Fifteenth Finance Commission, has constituted a Committee to review the  fiscal consolidation roadmap of the general government. The Terms of Reference of the Committee are –

• The Committee shall make recommendations on the definition of deficit and debt for the Central government, overall states, the General Government and public sector enterprises by considering all explicit and measurable liabilities of the sovereign and by bringing in consistency between the definition of debt (stock) and deficit (flow).
• The Committee shall also lay down the principles for arriving at the debt of the general government debt and consolidated public sector with appropriate netting to avoid double-counting.
• The Committee shall define contingent liabilities, provide quantifiable measures of such liabilities, wherever possible, and specify conditions under which “contingent” liabilities become “explicit” liabilities of the public sector.
• Based on the above definition, the Committee shall review the current status of deficit and debt at different levels.
• Based on the above, the Committee shall recommend a debt and fiscal consolidation roadmap for FY21-FY25 for the Central Government, overall States and General Government and attempt building up scenarios for public sector enterprises.

The Committee will be chaired by Chairman Sh. N. K. Singh.  The other Members of the Committee will be Shri A. N.  Jha   and Dr. Anoop Singh, Members  of 15th Finance Commission,  one representative each from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Controller General of Accounts, the Joint Secretary (Budget) of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.  Two outside experts, namely, Dr. Sajjid Z Chinoy  & Dr. Prachi Mishra will also be Members of the Committee;  further, the Committee will include as Members the  representatives from State Governments Shri. S. Krishnan, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu and  Sh. Anirudh Tiwari, Principal Secretary, Government of Punjab. 

Analytical and data support to the Committee will be provided by a team from National Institute of Public Finance & Policy, New Delhi. The Economic Division of the Finance Commission Secretariat shall facilitate and support the working of the Committee.  

Fiscal consolidation roadmap review to standardize deficit and debt definitions and measure contingent liabilities across general government. A Committee will recommend harmonised definitions of deficit and debt across Central, state, general government and public sector enterprises, prescribe debt netting principles to avoid double-counting, define and quantify contingent liabilities and set conditions when they become explicit liabilities, review current deficit and debt positions, and propose a multi-year debt and fiscal consolidation roadmap with scenarios for public sector enterprises.