Finance Commission

In theory

A body constituted every five years to recommend how tax revenue is divided between the Union and the States, and among the States themselves -- the central mechanism of India's fiscal federalism.

In practice

Recommendations are not legally binding on Parliament, but by strong convention have been accepted in full or near-full by every Union government to date; the devolution formula is nonetheless a recurring flashpoint, especially southern states' objection to population-based weightage criteria that they argue penalizes decades of successful family-planning outcomes.