The State Finance Commission convened a meeting with officials of the Finance and Panchayat Raj here on Thursday to discuss the report submitted by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) on the finances of local bodies.
The meeting chaired by Chairman Rajesham Goud and attended by Member Secretary Suresh Chanda, officials of the Finance and Panchayat Raj and Rural Development went through the interim report submitted by the CESS on the financial resources of select panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) in the five erstwhile districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy.
As part of the study, the CESS team visited 10 mandals, 20 gram panchayats and eight thandas in the five districts and concluded that the release of State Finance Commission grants to the PRIs during 2013-14 to 2017-18 were not substantial. An amount of ₹19.6 crore was released in 2013-14 and ₹28.2 crore in 2017-18. Same was the case with per capita grant and seigniorage grant.
The own source of revenue improved to ₹294 crore in 2014-15 and ₹333 crore in 2017-18 and thanks to 14th Finance Commission grants, the GPs saw a quantum jump in their resources and got ₹928 crore in 2017-18. Though property tax of the gram panchayats increased from ₹102 crore in 2010-11 to ₹400 crore in 2017-18, there was not much revenue from other taxes.
Huge potential
The report said that there was huge potential in the non-tax sources area, which should be tapped efficiently through user charges, auctions, various kinds of fees etc.
Overall, the percentage of own revenues to the total revenues of the GPs was low in some districts, the report said and emphasised the need to improve revenue collections like professional tax, house tax, and tax from auctions.
It noted that devolution of functions, funds and functionaries should be improved in Telangana to achieve parity with other southern States.
Mr. Rajesham Goud thanked Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for announcing huge transfer of funds to PRIs and urban local bodies, over the recommendations of State Finance Commission’s interim report and 14th Finance Commission.