Incentivise States for disinvestment in public sector enterprises: Finance Commission chief

The Centre should incentivise States to come clean on their fiscal deficit positions, bring off-Budget liabilities above board and take up their own strategic disinvestment programmes for myriad State-owned public sector enterprises, Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairperson N.K. Singh mooted in an interview with The Hindu. Terming the central government’s decision to “transparently” acknowledge a fiscal deficit of 9.5% of GDP this year as “a very positive development”, Mr. Singh said the Centre could incentivise the States to adopt a similar practice as this would enhance the confidence of investors in India’s overall debt and fiscal deficit trajectory.