Fin Comm forms committee to resolve Rs 31,000 crore Punjab's food account

The 15thFinance Commission Wednesday announced the formation of a committee to find ways to settle the food account of Rs 31,000 crore, which the Congress government inherited from previous SAD-BJP regime.

"We have decided to constitute a committee headed by finance commission member Ramesh Chand to look into food legacy account issue within six weeks, with representatives of government of Punjab, Food Corporation of India and Ministry of Finance to look into all options which are available within the constitutional mandate," said Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh while addressing media Wednesday.

Punjab has been consistently seeking the resolution of food account of Rs 31,000 crore from the Centre.

The food account,which the erstwhile SAD-BJP government had taken over in 2017, just before assembly election results, arose because of the mismatch between cash credit availed for procuring wheat and paddy and the foodgrain stocks in the account books of the state procurement agencies