Since the GST impacts States' revenue receipts, the 15th Finance Commission has sought regular dialogues with the GST Council.
While talking to media persons here on Thursday, Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reacted positively to the request. He informed that a similar plea was also made to her predecessor Arun Jaitley.
"We hope that the commission will soon interact with the GST Council and establish a dialogue mechanism besides taking steps on the outcome of GST, which affects the commission, the Centre and more so the states," he told.
Singh said though the GST Council, which is an autonomous constitutional body, does not have any direct link to the finance commission, the panel will have to include the outcome of GST Council's decisions in its data for the revenue calculations and projections.
Replying to a question about demand by several states to increase the allocation to 50 percent from current 42 per cent, Singh said that no state has so far abstained from asking for an increase from 42 percent to 50 percent, and the Centre at no stage will be happy with such a high level.
“We have to make a judicious balance,” he added.
On the demand of the MP Congress leaders to compensate the farm-loan waiver introduced by the state government, he said the Centre has left to individual state's fiscal health.
He expressed satisfaction that in past 15 years, in the presence of a stable government, Madhya Pradesh achieved several targets, but it was surprising that despite having worked remarkably in the field of agriculture, the benefits did not reach the farmers.
Talking about the loan waiver scheme for farmers of the State government, Singh stated that Madhya Pradesh is not the only State to have adopted such a scheme. There are several States come up with similar schemes with different names. The only rule applies in such cases is that any individual State can take such a decision if there is financial space in the State.
Earlier in the day, the commission held meeting with chief minister Kamal Nath and state officials. Nath has appealed the commission to think about inter-state equality going beyond the Centre-state relationship.