Tamil Nadu News

Reforming Local Body Finances

September 19 , 2026 9 hrs 0 min 61 0

Tamil Nadu’s Seventh State Finance Commission (SSFC) Chairman K. Allaudin called for greater authority, financial autonomy and resources for local bodies at a seminar in Chennai.
Local bodies depend heavily on financial transfers from the Union and State governments.
Rural local bodies in many States raise only 1%–8% of their revenue from their own sources.
Property tax collection in India is about 0.2% of GDP, compared with about 1.1% in OECD countries.
Tamil Nadu has 50% reservation for women in local bodies, but spouses of some elected women representatives sometimes try to exercise their roles informally.
TN-VETRI (Tamil Nadu Village Empowerment, Transformation and Rejuvenation Initiative) aims to strengthen rural local bodies.
The Rural Development Department has sought an increase in devolution funds from 10% to 12%.