Govt appoints RBI DG T. Rabi Sankar as sixteenth FinComm member

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra with Deputy Governors Poonam Gupta, M. Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi Sankar and Swaminathan Janakiraman earlier than the post-monetary coverage press convention, in Mumbai, on June 6, 2025.
| Photograph Credit score: PTI

RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar has been appointed as a part-time member of the sixteenth Finance Fee, the finance ministry mentioned on Saturday (June 7, 2025).

The appointment, the ministry mentioned, “is consequent to the resignation of one of many full-time members, former Finance Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha, on private grounds”.

“The President has appointed T. Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor, Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI), as a part-time Member of the sixteenth Finance Fee (XVIFC),” the ministry mentioned in a press release.

“Mr. Sankar will maintain workplace from the date of assuming cost till the submission of the Fee’s Report or October 31, 2025, whichever is earlier,” it added.

The fee, chaired by former Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog Arvind Panagariya, has 4 members and is assisted by Secretary Ritvik Pandey, two joint secretaries and one financial advisor.

Retired bureaucrat Annie George Mathew and economist Manoj Panda are full-time members of the fee, whereas SBI Group Chief Financial Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh is a part-time member.

The federal government constituted the sixteenth Finance Fee underneath the chairmanship of Panagariya on December 31, 2023. The panel would submit its report back to the President by October 31, 2025. The report could be for 5 years commencing on April 1, 2026.

Apart from suggesting tax devolution between the Centre and states and income augmentation measures, the fee will evaluation the current preparations for financing catastrophe administration initiatives as regards to the funds constituted underneath the Catastrophe Administration Act, 2005.

The Finance Fee is a constitutional physique to offer strategies on centre-state monetary relations.

The erstwhile fifteenth Finance Fee underneath N.Ok. Singh had beneficial that states be given 41% of the divisible tax pool of the Centre throughout the five-year interval 2021-22 to 2025-26, which is on the similar stage as was beneficial by the 14th Finance Fee underneath Y.V. Reddy.