performance evaluation of town panchayats in thoothukudi

Abstract

Town panchayat is one of the forms of local self-government in Tamil Nadu, India. The aim of the town panchayat is to satisfy local needs of the residents in a balanced and coordinated manner. The objective is to satisfy the needs with the available resources in such a way as to secure maximum economic and social welfare. newline The functions of the town panchayats consist of tax collection, building regulations, health and hygiene, infrastructure facilities and issue of birth and death certificates, construction and maintenance of local roads, streetlight and provision of water supply. For the effective discharge of these functions they need adequate finance and efficient management. But the local government especially town panchayats are not in a position to provide sufficient funds for various projects due to its inability to enhance tax rates, omission of taxes and fees, ineffective tax collection system and the inability to control expenditure. As a transitional area, the town panchayats faced the problem of lower revenue and higher demand for services resulting in the widening of gap between revenue and expenditure. Most of the town panchayats struggle to bridge this imbalance. In this context, it is proposed to undertake a research on town panchayats mainly to identify the causes for such imbalance in individual town panchayats and of various divisions and grades and to offer suggestions. The researcher also studies the role of grants-in-aid, assigned revenue and their relationship with revenue and expenditure.This is an empirical study in a selected area namely Thoothukudi district, based on both primary and secondary data. This research is confined to the finances and services of town panchayats in Thoothukudi district, which includes revenue and expenditure and the public services. This study, through the analysis of secondary data, explored the revenue performance of individual town panchayats and town panchayats of various divisions and grades. It also analysed the expenditure of these panchayats