REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE PATTERN OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS OF PUNJAB-A CASE STUDY OF JALANDHAR AND AMRITSAR MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

Raj Kumari. Municipal corporations in Punjab have the statutory responsibility to provide basic amenities to its citizens. But they are under fiscal stress as they are getting very less help from the state governments to meet their expenses. The present study is an attempt to study the revenue and expenditure pattern of two municipal corporations in Punjab namely jalandhar municipal Corporation an Amritsar Municipal corporations. The findings of the study reveals that as grants from the government to these local government is very less in comparison to their expenditure ,so they are compelled to meet their establishment expenditure from the general income which should otherwise be spent on providing civic amenities to the public.

held and 50 Municipal councilors were elected. According to census 2011 the population of Patiala city is 445196 , and it is having 60 wards at present.At present there are ten municipal corporations in Panjab.

Objectives of the Study:-
The major thrust of the paper is to examine the pattern of revenue and expenditure of municipal corporation in panjab.
Period of Study:-The study will be conducted for 7 years from 2008-09to 2014-15. Sample of the study:-The study covers two municipal corporations in Punjab i.e. Jalandhar, Amritsar. Sources of data: -The data will be collected through secondary sources. Secondary data will be collected from various published reports of Govt.mainly budgets of municipal corporations selected.

Revenue structure of selected municipal corporations:-
The resources of Municipal Corporations of Punjab comprises of two types of resources. Internal and external resource. Internal sources includes tax and non-tax revenues and external sources includes borrowings and grantsin-aid/share in state taxes and transfers from the Central Government General .Income of muncicipal corporation includes share of VAT,House tax and property tax,octroi on electricity. Advertisement tax licence fee,slaughter house fee,rent from municipal property tahbazari,composition fee, sale of property,recovery of loan from employees, income from operation and maintainence cell and additional excise duty ,grants from state or central government and loans. The percentage share of total income from various sources reveal in Table 1.1 that major portion of income is from general income which means that corporation has to itself generate the sources to run the corporation. In 2008-09 and 2009-10 the corporation did not receive any grant from the government and from 2010-11 to 2014-15 the grant from the government or loan procured wa very minor in comparison to the total income. Maximum income was generated in 2013-14 but maximum grant was also received during this period.  Table 1.2 shows that revenue collected from general income is maximum in all the years which shows that revenue collected from taxes and non taxes resources is major share of income in both the municipalities.%of Grants and loan from the government is very nominal.the % share of general income in table 1.2shows that municipal corporations have to generate their own resources to met their expenses. Average and percentage growth rate Income from water supply is was more in jalandhar municipal corporation as compared to Amritsar municipal corporation.this shows that the municipal corporation Amritsar is not able to collect water supply bills from its customers efficiently.

Expenditure Pattern In Selected Municipal Corporations In Punjab:-
Expenditure of municipalities is of three types. Establishment expenditure, contingency expenditure and development expenditure Establishment expenditure includes salary & wages, allowances, reimbursements, employee welfare, terminal benefits and other employee costs. The expenditure which directly contributes to civic amenities and social service is known as developmental expenditure, while the remaining expenditure is nondevelopment. Expenditure on public health, sanitation, public safety, public works, convenience, etc. is included in the development expenditure Development expenditure can be committed or non commited.Development expenditure includes development work of roads, bridges, projects streets and drains ,street lights, parks development of slum colonies and other areas and municipal buildings, energy bill of streets, computerization, repayment of loans Municipal solid waste management etc.  Table 2.1 shows that more expenditure is done on development and less on establishment which shows that corporation is more concerned about urban development in the Jalandhar city, and income is enough to meet its expenses.The total expenditure shows increasing trend except in 2014-15there was decrese in total expenditure.However % expenditure of the total expenditure is maximum on the development.The contingency expenses are minimum in all the years in comparison to other expenses which show that budgets are well planned and municipal corporation running efficiently. Table 2.2 shows that in Amritsar MC maximum expenditure Is done on establishment expenses.which consist mainly of salaries of their employees.Nearly one third of the total expenditure is done on development which shows that the MC is not running efficiently however contingency expenses are satisfactory.  Table 2.3 that establishment expenditure showed increasing trend in Jalandher municipal corporation and Amritsar MC.in jalandhar MC growth rate was maximum in 2010-11 which was 51.33% and minimum in 2014-15which awas 6.10%.increase in establishment expenditure reveals that more money is spent on salaries of the staff.However average growth rate was more in jalandhar MC.   3.1 reveals that the financial position of Amritsar MC is not so good as as either it is deficit or very less surplus left after meeting the expenditure. Table 3.2 shows that from 2009-10 to 2012-13 there was dficit balance which means MC was running in loss. however in 2013-14 it has shown surplus balance.

Findings and suggestions:-
The findings of th study reveals that both the municipal corporations are earning morefrom general income which means they are generating their own sources from taxes and non taxes income .In both the MC's contribution from the grants from government is very less in comparison to total income. Regarding the expenditure the Jalandhar MC's is spening more on development but Amritsar Mc is spending more on establishment expenditure which shows that there is less progress in Amritsar than jalandhar municipal corporation.I suggest that corporations should be given more grants by the state an central government so they can meet their establishment expenditure an concentrate on development works for providing civic amenities to the public.