October - December 2012 - National Institute of Rural Development

430 D Rajasekhar and R Manjulapayment of taxes. This will in turn result inpeople asking for accountability on how theirhard earned money is spent. This is expectedto influence the behaviour of GPs in such amanner that they will be careful when itcomes to spending resources mobilised fromthe people on the provision of services suchas streetlights.Although per capita revenue reducesthe ratio, this was not statistically significantat the State level. However, this variable ishighly significant in all the four regions. Ahighly significant negative associationbetween per capita own revenue and theratio in developed, backward and highlybackward districts implies that higheramounts of own revenue improved theaffordability of GPs. The sign is, however,positive in the highly developed category ofdistricts. This is because of Bangalore Urbanand Rural districts, which fall into thecategory of highly developed districts. Inthese districts, house tax forms a considerableproportion of the total own revenue. Thegrowing urbanisation in these districtsimplies that the value of residential premiseshas been growing, and thereby betteropportunities for GPs to revise and imposehouse tax. Similarly, rising incomes enablethe rural dwellers to construct new andbetter houses and go for amenities such asprivate household water connections. This, inturn, leads to higher potential for GPs tomobilise own revenue in the form of wateruser charges. The booming constructionindustry in Bangalore city provided anopportunity for GPs in the Bangalorehinterland to raise revenue from the sale ofsand, auctioning of granite, etc. Thus, thesetwo districts are distinctly different in so faras the mobilisation of own revenue isconcerned. As a result, the per capita ownrevenue was high at around `135 while itdid not cross ` 20 in most of the districts in2002-03 (Rajasekhar and Manjula 2010).Nevertheless the high per capita ownrevenue has not led to a reduction of ratio ofexpenditure on streetlight services in thesedistricts because of the weak accountability.In these districts, the construction of housesin revenue land makes the owners to be proactivein the house tax payment with thehope that such payment will provide legallegitimacy to the house ownership. Such anactive involvement in the payment of housetax may not be visible when it comes toraising voices on services provided by GPs.The results show that the variable onfixation of meters is not statistically significantat the State level and in highly developed,developed and backward districts. However,the statistically significant results in the highlybackward districts suggest that if a meter isfixed, this would reduce the expenditure by20 paise for every one rupee (or by about 20per cent). This is because the calculations ofelectricity charges are likely to be accuratein the case of GPs that have installed meters.The notional method adopted by KPTCL islikely to result in higher electricity charges,as this method does not take erratic powersupply, non-functioning streetlights, etc., intoaccount. The installation of meters will, thus,lead to the correct reading of the electricityconsumed, lower expenditure on electricityand better affordability of GPs.Sex of the president is significantlyassociated with the ratio in the backwardcategory of districts. In these districts, theratio declines by 8 per cent wherever a GPhas woman president. In other words, if theGP has female president then the ratio willdecrease by 8 paise as the females are knownto have more social concern (Chattopadhyayand Duflo 2004).Age will negatively influence the ratio,as older people would have acquiredconsiderable experience on managing theJournal of Rural Development, Vol. 31, No. 4, October - December : 2012