LSG and Decentralised Planning

Performance of Local Governments

The local governments allocate their plan funds mainly to productive, service and infrastructure sectors. The productive sector includes agriculture and allied sectors, soil and water conservation, irrigation and industries. The service sector consists of education and allied sectors, health and allied services, development of women and children, labour and labour welfare etc. The infrastructure sector includes energy, transportation and buildings. The total plan grants in aid available including opening balance with LGs for allocating funds to various development sectors during 2015-16 was 6069.18 crore, an increase of 154.38. crores (that is 2.61 per cent) from the previous year.

Out of the total fund available, only 4467.76 crore was utilized for different sectors. Thus, the plan fund utilization percentage in 2015-16 was 73.61 per cent which was marginally higher compared to the previous year. The expenditure pattern shows wide variations among local bodies. Among the three tiers, the performance of Block Panchayat was better with 85.28 per cent expenditure followed by Grama Panchayats with 79.53 per cent and District Panchayat with 65.47 per cent during 2015-16. The per cent of expenditure among urban local governments was the lowest, in the Corporations (51.14 per cent) and Municipalities (68.64 per cent) during 2015-16. The tier wise details of outlay, fund available and expenditure of grant-in-aid during 2014-15 and 2015-16 are given in Figure 8.3 and Appendix 8.2a and Appendix 8.2b.

Figure 8.3
Tier Wise fund available to LGs

Source: Information Kerala Mission 2016