Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 17 September 2026 announced the formation of the Maharashtra Sustainable Public Finance Committee, a high-level expert panel tasked with recommending structural reforms to strengthen the state's finances and accelerate long-term growth. The committee is headed by eminent economist and former Union Finance Secretary Dr Vijay Kelkar, and its formation is directly tied to Maharashtra's ambitious 'Viksit Maharashtra @ 2047' vision.

Committee Composition and Mandate

The Kelkar Committee brings together a formidable lineup of economic and administrative expertise. Its members include Prof Karthik Muralidharan, founder-director of CEGIS; Dr Nitin Kareer, former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra; T Rabi Sankar, former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); and Dr Ashima Goyal, President of The Indian Econometric Society.

The panel has been tasked with a broad fiscal reform agenda: modernising the tax system, plugging revenue leakages, rationalising tax rates, fees, and exemptions; identifying untapped revenue streams; maximising returns from public assets and state enterprises; streamlining public spending; and devising a fiscally responsible plan to reduce reliance on borrowings for infrastructure and budget deficits.

The Fiscal Pressure Maharashtra Faces

The committee's constitution comes at a critical moment for Maharashtra. Despite pursuing an investment-led growth strategy across infrastructure, urban management, water security, human resource development, and energy transition, the state faces mounting fiscal constraints. Rising welfare commitments and debt servicing costs have repeatedly strained adherence to targets set under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

The state's fiscal deficit is capped at 2.8% to 3.0% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), with the revenue deficit targeted at under 0.7% of GSDP. However, Maharashtra has frequently resorted to market borrowings to fund capital projects and offset short-term liquidity shortfalls, a trend the Kelkar Committee is now expected to help reverse. Progress is tracked quarterly through a dedicated Vision Management Unit chaired by the Chief Minister.

The 'Viksit Maharashtra @ 2047' Vision

The Kelkar panel is a key institutional instrument within the broader 'Viksit Maharashtra @ 2047' framework, which lays out a roadmap to scale Maharashtra's economy to $1 trillion by 2030 and $5 trillion by 2047 — the centenary year of India's Independence. The vision document calls for restructuring government expenditure policy to align with long-term capital formation, and for identifying alternative financing models and private capital inflows.

This is notably not Maharashtra's first attempt at fiscal consolidation — successive state governments have grappled with the tension between expanding welfare outlays and capital investment capacity. What distinguishes this initiative is the structural, committee-driven approach to both revenue enhancement and expenditure rationalisation simultaneously.

What the Panel Is Expected to Deliver

The Kelkar Committee is expected to deliver actionable recommendations that address both sides of the fiscal ledger. On the revenue side, it will examine untapped streams and underperforming public assets. On the expenditure side, it will look at committed costs — salaries, pensions, interest payments, and welfare schemes — that leave limited headroom for capital spending.

With Maharashtra being India's largest state economy by output, the committee's findings could have implications beyond the state, potentially serving as a model for fiscal reform in other large, high-spending states grappling with similar pressures. The panel's final recommendations are awaited and are expected to shape Maharashtra's fiscal policy for the coming decade.