---
title: "N.K. Singh FRBM Review Committee: Key Recommendations"
description: "The N.K. Singh FRBM Review Committee proposed a 60% debt-to-GDP anchor and a fiscal council for India in 2017 — the framework behind today's FRBM amendments."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/n-k-singh-frbm-review-committee"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The N.
- K.
- What was the debt-to-GDP target recommended by the N.K. Singh Committee?
- Did India implement all the committee's recommendations?
- How does the committee differ from the original FRBM Act of 2003?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

The N.K. Singh FRBM Review Committee was a 2016 panel that recommended replacing India's fiscal-deficit targets with a debt-anchored framework and an independent fiscal council.

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## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

The N.K. Singh FRBM Review Committee was constituted by the Government of India's Ministry of Finance in May 2016 to review the working of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, and to recommend a roadmap suited to changed macroeconomic conditions. The original FRBM Act, enacted under Sections that mandated the Union government eliminate the revenue deficit and cap the fiscal deficit, had been repeatedly amended and its targets postponed, prompting a comprehensive reassessment. The five-member committee was chaired by N.K. Singh, a former Revenue and Expenditure Secretary and later Rajya Sabha member and Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman, and included Urjit Patel (then RBI Governor), Sumit Bose, Arvind Subramanian (Chief Economic Adviser), and Rathin Roy. The panel submitted its report, titled "Responsible Growth: A Debt and Fiscal Framework for 21st Century India," in January 2017, organised across four volumes covering the analytical case, the proposed law, international experience, and supporting research.

### Opponents

The committee's design provoked debate on several fronts. Arvind Subramanian appended a dissent note arguing that a single fixed debt target was too rigid and that the framework underweighted growth and revenue uncertainties; he favoured greater flexibility. Critics also questioned whether a 60 percent general-government debt ceiling was realistically attainable given persistent state-level borrowing and off-budget liabilities such as those of public-sector enterprises and the Food Corporation of India. The non-establishment of the fiscal council remains the most significant unimplemented recommendation, and successive Economic Surveys and parliamentary standing committees have periodically revived the proposal. The post-pandemic abandonment of explicit numerical targets, with the government instead committing to a deficit "below 4.5 percent of GDP by 2025–26," further loosened the rules the committee had sought to harden.

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In February 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoked the escape clause designed by the N.K. Singh FRBM Review Committee, permitting a 0.5 percentage-point deviation from the fiscal-deficit target.

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