The 15th Finance Commission has notified the committee to examine and resolve the food account of Rs 31,000 crore which the Congress government inherited from previous SAD-BJP regime.

Commission chairman N K Singh gave approval to the issuance of the notification for the constitution of the committee on Monday, an official release of Punjab Government said.

The Chief Minister Amarinder Singh while welcoming the move, expressed the hope that it would lead to early resolution of the issue related to the legacy debt of Rs 30,584 crore, which was threatening to cascade into a major fiscal crisis for the state.

The committee, to be led by Member 15th Finance Commission and Member NITI Aayog Ramesh Chand, has been asked to submit its report within six weeks.

The Committee has been mandated to look into all aspects of the food account legacy debt of Punjab government arising out of accumulated CCL (Cash Credit Limit) gap with reference to Food Corporation of India/Department of Food and Public Distribution.

On current accumulation of CCL gap, the Committee has been asked to examine

the current issues related to the CCL Gap in order to ascertain the root causes for such gap. It would also recommend appropriate measures to overcome the causes identified, so as to ensure the CCL gap does not exist in the successive procurement seasons.

On January 30, the 15th Finance Commission, during Punjab visit, had announced the formation of a committee to find ways to settle the food account of Rs 31,000 crore.