Fiscal Consolidation of Local Urban Bodies in India: Review and Reforms for Institutional Resilience

By : Vaishnavi Singh

Page No: 16-25

Abstract
As an essential pillar of the urban institutional infrastructure, municipal corporations are indispensable in providing local public service delivery and organisation. Their efficient functioning is imperative in an era of rapid urbanisation and large scale rural to urban migration which pressurises the institutional capabilities of metropolitan cities. This paper is an attempt at investigating the fiscal challenges that plague the functioning of municipal corporations in India and estimates their performance through reports of the 15th Finance Commission and national level indexes such as the Municipal Performance Index 2020. Existing challenges in the domain of municipal finance, operational efficiency and service delivery are identified along with the fiscal reforms undertaken by municipal corporations in India to overcome them. The study emphasises the urgent need for financial self-sufficiency and economic resilience1 of municipal corporations to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and overcome modern challenges.

Author :
Vaishnavi Singh : MSc Economics (Double Degree) student at the University of Nottingham, UK and the University of Tübingen, Germany.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/NL.2024.56.01.2