Making a case for fair treatment of Union Territories in Finance Commission

Call for fiscal autonomy to Union Territories with Assemblies may get louder with 'special status' to J&K in the Finance Commission, say experts

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, provides for the president to refer to the 15th Finance Commission to include the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir in its Terms of Reference. This will allow J&K -- a UT with a legislature — to receive the benefits of devolution of central taxes, something that it has been previously enjoying as a “state”.

However, a similar concession has never been extended to UTs with Assemblies — Delhi and Puducherry —by the successive Finance Commissions despite repeated representations from such UTs.

The Constitution provides for a state government to receive the benefits of devolution