What is the status of money with the panchayats?Some surprising things have also come to light in the report about the status of money with the panchayats. According to the report, panchayats themselves are able to earn very little money and mostly depend on grants received from the central and state governments.Panchayats are able to earn only 1% of their needs through taxes. That is, their ability to earn money on their own is very low. Each panchayat is able to earn only Rs 21,000 from its taxes and Rs 73,000 from non-tax sources.80% of the money received by the panchayats comes from the central government and 15% from the state government grants. Every panchayat receives an average grant of Rs 17 lakh from the central government and about Rs 3.25 lakh from the state government. This means that panchayats are still dependent on others and are not able to earn money on their own.Panchayat expenditure and differences across statesThe report also provides information about the expenditure of panchayats and their financial condition in different states. In all states, the expenditure of panchayats is less than 0.6% of the state's total income (GSDP). It is the lowest in bihar (0.001%), while the highest in odisha (0.56%). kerala and West bengal have the highest average income of panchayats (over Rs 60 lakh and Rs 57 lakh, respectively). Whereas states like andhra pradesh and punjab have very low incomes (less than Rs 6 lakh).This means that panchayats have very little money for development work and their financial condition varies widely from state to state. In some states, panchayats need more financial support to be able to function properly.
