Federal fiscal transfers in India

The experience of fiscal federalism in India provides a colourful chiaroscuro dur ing the last four and a half decades. The words of Maxwell that 'there is and there I can be no final solution to the fiscal prob lems' have come to be true suggesting for a continuous mechanism for fiscal adjust ment in the Indian federation. An attempt has been made in the present study to examine some of the important issues of fiscal federalism which have become irri tants in fiscal relations between the Centre and the States in India. The study makes a modest attempt to review critically and evaluate the principles and criteria followed by the successive Finance Commissions and the Planning Commission while chan neling the fiscal transfers, especially from the point of view of equity. Issues such as Debt Relief and Financing of Relief Expen diture which have hitherto not received adequate attention in the literature on Centre-State Financial Relations have been given prominence and are discussed elabo rately.

This book will be of interest and useful to all scholars and students of Economics and Public Administration in general, and of Public Finance and Federal Finance in particular.