Own Resource Mobilisation of Panchayat Samitis: An Analysis on few Panchayat Samitis of Howrah District of West Bengal in India

Abstract

Panchayat Samitis in general are even more dependent on government grants. There are overlapping powers of charging levies and fees and tolls among the three tiers. In practice, Panchayat Samitis do not utilise these levying powers. But some Pan chayat Samitis in the state have been able to earn a good income from their remunerative assets including social forestry, tanks and ponds,ferries etc. But their performance has not been uniform. Pan chayat Samiti has discretionary powers of levy of tolls, rates and fees under the West Bengal Panchayat Act, l973 (Section 133). They are: (i) levy tolls on persons, vehicles or animals at any toll bar established by it or any bridge vested in it or under its management; (ii) levy tolls in respect of any ferry stablished by it or under its management; (iii) levy the fees and rates like fees on registration of vehicles, fees for providing sanitary arrangement at places of worship, fairs within its jurisdiction, license fees on offensive and dangerous trade renewable annually by Panchayat Samitis, fees for license for hat or market etc. Besides, Pan chayat Samiti is empowered to borrow money from banks and other financial institutions for the specific schemes and purposes (Section 135A). The total own source revenue and per capita own source revenue substantially varied across the Panchayat Samitis of Howrah district during 2012-13. The Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of few panchayat samitis belonged to the highest group of per capita own source revenue in 2012-13.The Entropy measure showed an increasing trend of iversification of own source revenue during the period from 2008-09 to 2012-13. Revenue autonomy and fiscal autonomy of Panchayat Samitis substantially varied across the Panchayat Samitis during 2012-13.