Fiscal Decentralization - Revenue and Expenditure Analysis of ULBs: A Case Study of Trivandrum Municipal Corporation (TMC), Kerala, India

Abstract

Decentralized provision of basic public services whereby local governments is empowered to make all policy decisions on behalf of their residents represents a complex system of political, administrative and fiscal autonomy mechanisms and Service delivery is the most important interfaces between a modern democratic state and its citizens. The 74^th Constitutional Amendment provided functional domain to the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) in India and it recognized Urban Local Bodies as the best agencies to deliver basic services such as water, health, education, waste management, sanitation etc. The decentralized urban local governance regime in Kerala aims at providing devolution of functions, finances, functionaries and freedom of planning to Urban Local Bodies enabling them to cater better services to the people at large. However, these efforts have not been transpired into effective service delivery in urban governance.  This has been apprehended and debated by different studies and reports.

Even after 20 years of decentralized governance, the quality of public service delivery in urban and rural areas remains a serious concern for the policy makers. Keeping the above perspective, the study has analyzed micro level evidence from the state of Kerala. The study analysed four aspects of fiscal decentralization such as 1. Revenue Performance 2. Efficiency in Mobilization of Tax Revenue 3. Expenditure Performance 4. Fiscal Balance   to analyse the revenue and expenditure details of ULBs in Kerala.