Pattern of growth and structural changes of own resources of panchayats of West Bengal vis-a-vis other states of INDIA: an analysis

Abstract

Realization is growing that Panchayats have an important role to play in deepening democracy by mainstreaming the poor into development. it is also being felt that panchayats can help mobilize resources by introducing local solutions and meet people's basic requirements. However, the degree of success of Panchayati raj as an institution of self-government essentially depends on the extent of administrative and financial devolution, coupled with the autonomy within the constitutional framework. In many states, panchayats are, to some extent, burdened with a historical legacy of subservience. At the state level, under the existing budgetary procedures, significant control and discretion for making financial allocations to panchayats rests with the state government. Similar powers are vested with district-level officials. The funds are parked for a considerable period sequentially in the state treasury and then in the district treasury. This practice prevents panchayats from receiving their share of funds in amounts as well as on time as a consequence; the quality of expenditure is adversely affected. Over time, a dependency syndromes created. The concept of fiscal autonomy could be a remedial technique to eradicate that type of syndrome. by fiscal autonomy we mean the ratio of total own source revenue to total expenditure of the panchayats. It indicates whether the economy is self sufficient of not in terms of their own revenue. The large value of fiscal autonomy exhibits the financial autonomy of panchayats and vice versa. The focus of this paper is to review the real status of fiscal autonomy of panchayats of West Bengal vis-à-vis other states in India. The analysis is based on the secondary sources of information. we have taken fourteen major states of India. It reveals that the panchayats have vary little fiscal autonomy across the states.