An expert committee headed by former Chief Secretary K.M. Abraham and comprising Rajesh Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, and R. Ramkumar, Planning Board member, has been constituted for studying the debilitating impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown on public finances and various other sectors of the State.
The committee will assess the impact on State’s own tax eevenue, make a short-term and likely projection of collections for the current financial year with special thrust on Goods and Services Tax, Central transfers, especially tax devolution, non-tax revenue mobilisation, and liquidity issues that impact treasury management.
It will suggest specific and significant additional revenue mobilisation measures. The committee will identify the impact on key sectors of the economy that make significant contributions to the State’s Gross Domestic Product.
The panel will review how the crisis has impacted the remittances from non-resident Keralites. The outcome of the return of migrant labourers will come up for review. It will estimate the effect of additional expenditure obligations in the current year due to the recovery measures initiated. Drawing out proposals for expenditure control and identifying specific issues to be raised with the Centre too have been included in the terms of reference of the committee.
The committee will submit an interim report within a month and final report within three months.