Author: Mamun Bin Kaysar
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no.RD-03-08
Year: 2003
Academic Program: Regional and Rural Development Planning (RRDP)
Type: Thesis (M. Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 2003
Examination Committee: Soparth Pongquan (Chairperson); Jayant Kumar Routray, B.W.E. Wickramanayake (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: The research deals with the assessment of fiscal capacity of Union Parishad (UP) in Bangladesh. The main objectives of the research were to examine the status of fiscal decentralization in Bangladesh to examine type, source, amount and channel of local revenue of the UPs utilized on local development programs to assess fiscal capacity level of the UPs to identify factors affecting fiscal capacity of the UPs to identify problems, constraints and potentials of fiscal capacity of the UPs and to suggest recommendations to strengthen the fiscal capacity of them. The research was conducted in the six unions of Bakshiganj Upazila of Jamalpur district in Bangladesh to assess the level of fiscal capacity of UP members. Two types of unions were selected on the basis of revenue generation. Purposive and simple random samplings were followed to select the study area and the respondents respectively. A questionnaire survey was conducted as a prime method for primary data collection. The research was applied both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The research findings showed that fiscal capacity of the UPs in this area was influenced by five key factors comprised of income generating activities, utilization of resources, dependency on external grant, savings and autonomy of the UP bodies. For Higher revenue Generation (HRG) Unions, the influential factors were savings and income generating activities whereas for Lower revenue Generation (LRG) Unions, four influential factors comprising of taxpayer’s ability to pay, efficiency of tax collectors, income generating activities and autonomy of the UPs affected their fiscal capacity. Key problems and constraints of the fiscal capacity found in this research were low level of education of UP members, lack of knowledge and skill training in fiscal management, lack of people’s awareness in tax payment, nepotism in tax collection, lack of community’s support on resource mobilization, dependency on external aid, inadequate/ shortage of fund, poor resource generation, lack of
Scholarship Donor(s): His Majesty the King of Thailand
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
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