Need a data portal for finance commission, says 16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya

Finance commission needs data portal

There should be a data portal for data collected by the finance commission, said Arvind Panagariya, Chairman, Sixteenth Finance Commission, in the 18th Statistics Day event organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Saturday.

“Someone needs to take the lead to create a data portal on a permanent basis, so that the work can be smoothened out in the future,” Panagariya noted, highlighting that each finance commission has to start the work on data afresh and a data portal shall resolve that issue.

The sixteenth finance commission was constituted last year in December, with member appointments taking place earlier this year in January.

The members include Ajay Narayan Jha, former member of fifteenth finance commission, Annie George Matthew, former special secretary, expenditure, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, executive director, Artha Global and Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor, State Bank of India.

“The Sixteenth Finance Commission has been requested to make its recommendations available by October, 31, 2025, covering an award period of 5 years commencing 1st April, 2026,” the government had noted.

Panagariya, who was the chief guest of the programme, also launched the e-sankhyiki portal by the ministry and the Sustainable Development Goals National Indicator Framework report.

The data portal and repository is expected to make it easier to access ministry data.

The ministry is responsible for conducting surveys, releasing industrial production, inflation, unemployment and growth statistics.

Saurabh Garg, secretary, MoSPI, remarked that the ministry was working to improve data dissemination.

“Surveys have been increasing in number and diversity. On a regular basis, we are looking at systemic improvements to the timely publication of data or deployment of IT tools,” Garg said.

The finance commission is expected to decide on the devolution formula for states and, more importantly, for local bodies.

The earlier finance commission had recommended increasing the devolution share of states to 41 percent.