• Dr. Khagen Das

In India, the Gaon Panchayats, the grass-root level local government, are considered as the effective mechanism of realizing the goals of democratic decentralization and for accelerating village economic development. The 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India has endowed the Gaon Panchayats with greater powers, functions along with the provisions of financial resources. Unless these provisions and recommendations are in practice in the sense of achieving the financial and functional autonomies, the objective of the 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India of strengthening the Gaon Panchayats as local self government for rural economic development will not be realized. To work as the effective local self government, Gaon Panchayats must have functional autonomy which may be possible through financial autonomy. The Gaon Panchayats should have uniformity between the assigned functions and the financial resources. For financial autonomy, the Gaon Panchayats have to collect the own revenues from the different own tax and non-tax sources besides the assigned taxes and shared taxes. Gaon Panchayats will be called as financially autonomous only when they become able to discharge their functions effectively for the satisfaction of the people on the basis of local needs, aspirations and available resources. Unless the financial autonomy of the Gaon Panchayat is achieved in real sense and in proportion to the expenditure responsibilities, it can not serve as an effective local self government. In this light, this paper makes an attempt to make a comparative study between the revenues and expenditures of the Gaon Panchayats of Nalbari district of Assam.

Gaon Panchayats, Financial autonomy, Revenues and Expenditure.

"“Revenue-Expenditure Gap of the Gaon Panchayats: A Miracle of Local Self Government” A study of Nalbari District of Assam", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 9, page no.539-542, September-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1809724.pdf

"“Revenue-Expenditure Gap of the Gaon Panchayats: A Miracle of Local Self Government” A study of Nalbari District of Assam", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 9, page no. pp539-542, September-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1809724.pdf