Articles by Soumyadip Chattopadhyay

Disparate factors, including non-affordability, inconveniently located units lacking access to basic urban services, limited access to suitable land, lukewarm private sector participation, and the lack of local capacity and technical expertise have seriously undermined the potentials of government housing schemes. The Union Budget 2022 gives a boost to affordable urban housing in terms of allocation against the backdrop of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) housing for all by 2022 and entails key structural reforms to address some of the deep-rooted problems in the housing sector.

In West Bengal, municipal fiscal indicators have improved, but municipality finances are in a grossly unsatisfactory state. Inter-category fiscal disparities are large. Own source revenue is insufficient to cover revenue expenditure. Therefore, municipalities are dependent on intergovernmental transfers, and their fiscal autonomy is limited. Intergovernmental transfers are equalising in nature. There is an increasing need for adequate resources, especially owing to the decentralisation of urban service delivery, and a need for strengthening the fiscal health of urban local bodies by increasing own source revenue or intergovernmental transfers, by restructuring intergovernmental transfers, or by performing both actions.