Public Finance Solved Question Papers: Nov' 2016 | Dibrugarh University | B.Com 5th Sem

1. Answer the following questions:                                          1x8=8

Ans: Performance budgeting is generally understood as a system or technique of presentation of public expenditure in terms of functions, programmes, performance units, i.e. activities, projects etc, reflecting primarily the government output and its cost. The focus in a performance budgeting is basically different from that in the conventional budgets. The two approaches differ in their scope and context. Under the performance budgeting, emphasis is shifted from the budget as a means of accomplishment to the accomplishment itself. If concerns itself primarily with the objectives aimed at by the government rather than with the outlays incurred on several projects. According to U. S. Bureau of Budget, “A performance is one which presents the purpose the objectives for which funds are required, the cost of the programmes proposed for achieving those objectives and quantitative data measuring the accomplishment and work performed under each programme.”

Under performance budgeting system, the overall budget is divided into functions based on the major purpose of government and then subdivided into programme and activities, funds being granted for doing a specific quantity of work. Performance budgeting implies that the budget statement should indicate the actual achievements expected by a Ministry over a period of time from certain amount of expenditure. It forces attention on the size and cost of programme to be implemented.

Ans: Non Tax Revenue: The revenue obtained by the government from sources other then tax is called Non-Tax Revenue. The sources of non-tax revenue are:

1. Fees: Fees are another important source of revenue for the government. A fee is charged by public authorities for rendering a service to the citizens. The government provides certain services and charges certain fees for them. For example, fees are charged for issuing of passports, driving licenses, etc.

2. Fines or Penalties: Fines or penalties are imposed as a form of punishment for breach of law or non fulfillment or certain conditions or for failure to observe some regulations. Like taxes, fines are compulsory payments without quid pro quo. But while taxes are generally imposed to collect revenue. Fines are imposed as a form of punishment or to prevent people from breaking the law.

3. Surplus from Public Enterprises: The Government also gets revenue by way of surplus from public enterprises. In India, the Government has set up several public sector enterprises to provide public goods and services. Some of the public sector enterprises do make a good amount of profits. The profits or dividends which the government gets can be utilized for public expenditure.

4. Special assessment of betterment levy: It is a kind of special charge levied on certain members of the community who are beneficiaries of certain government activities or public projects. For example, due to a public park in a locality or due to the construction of a road, people in that locality may experience an appreciation in the value of their property or land. Thus, due to public expenditure, some people may experience 'unearned increments' in their asset holding.

5. Grants and Gifts: Gifts are Voluntary contributions by individuals or institutions to the government. Gifts are significant source of revenue during war and emergency. A grant from one government to another is an important sources of revenue in the modern days. The government at the Centre provides grants to State governments and the State governments provide grants to the local government to carry out their functions.

6. Deficit Financing: Deficit means an excess of public expenditure over public revenue. This excess may be met by borrowings from the market, borrowings from abroad, by the central bank creating currency. In case of borrowing from abroad, there cannot be compulsion for the lenders, but in case of internal borrowings there may be compulsion.

Ans: Prof. Findlay Shirras has explained four canons of public expenditure. They are canon of benefit, canon of sanction, canon of economy and canon of surplus.

CANON OF BENEFIT: The ideal of this is maximum social advantage. That is, public expenditure should be planned so as to yield maximum social advantage and social welfare of the community as a whole and not of a particular group. Public expenditure must be spent in those directions which will maximise utility. It is possible only when the marginal utility from different uses is equal. The public authorities should distribute resources so as to increase production, reduce inequalities of income distribution, preserve social life of the people, and improve the quality of social life etc. “Other things being equal, expenditure should bring with its important social advantages such as increased production, the preservation whole against external attack and internal disorder and as far as possible a reduction in the inequalities of income. In short, public funds must be spent in those directions most conducive to the public interest. i.e., maximum utility is to be attained in public expenditure.”---Findlay Shirras.

CANON OF ECONOMY: This implies that the state should be economical in spending money. It should not spend more than the necessary amount on items of expenditure. The sole aim is to avoid extravagance and corruption. Social benefit can be maximised when resources are not wasted. While incurring public expenditure social costs are to be minimised. To satisfy this canon Project Appraisal and Cost Benefit Analysis are to be adopted. “Economy means protecting the interests of the tax payers not merely in effecting economies in expenditure, but in developing revenue.”—Shirras.

CANON OF SANCTION: According to this canon, no expenditure should be incurred without the proper approval of the sanctioning authority. It also implies that the spending authorities should spend the amount for which it has been sanctioned and to see that the sanctioned amount is properly utilized. Public accounts are to be audited at the end of financial year. This canon acts as check on arbitrary, unwise and reckless spending of public funds.

CANON OF SURPLUS: This canon believes in the avoidance of deficit in public expenditure. According to Findlay Shirras,”Public authorities must earn their living and pay their way like ordinary citizens. Balanced budget must, as in the private expenditure; the order of the day. Annual expenditure must be balanced without the creation of fresh credits unrepresented by the new assets.”

Ans: Keynes’ Theory of Public Finance: Functional Finance Keynes and Hansen have given us the ‘new economics’ which is primarily a new concept of public finance. They assume that a capitalist economy by itself cannot function and thereby the government will have to come to the rescue of the economy at certain times. They emphasize compensatory action through fiscal policy to stabilize and regulate the economic system of a country. The Keynesian concept of public finance has been called functional finance by Abba P. Lerner. Functional finance is the system of judging fiscal measures by the way they function in the economy. Functional finance reduces fiscal operation of taxation, public expenditure and the public debt to operations of policy so as to reduce the volume of money and the aggregate demand in the country. For example, according to functional finance, the main function of taxation is not to secure funds for the state but to be an effective weapon in the hands of the state so as to reduce the purchasing power of the people. In the same way, the main function of public expenditure is to influence the volume of aggregate demand to equal aggregate supply.

Thus, the old precepts vanished, economists began to visualize the instrument of fiscal policy as a means of promoting a healing to their economy. Public finance became Functional Finance signifying a study of the fiscal functions of the government that could eliminate unwanted distortions and fluctuations in the economic activity.

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One of the important principles of public finance is the so – called Principle of Maximum Social Advantage explained by Professor Hugh Dalton. Just like an individual seeks to maximize his satisfaction or welfare by the use of his resources, the state ought to maximize social advantage or benefit from the resources at its command.

The principles of maximum social advantage are applied to determine whether the tax or the expenditure has proved to be of the optimum benefit. Hence, the principle is called the principle of public finance. According to Dalton, “This (Principle) lies at the very root of public finance” He again says “The best system of public finance is that which secures the maximum social advantage from the operations which it conducts.” It may be also called the principle of maximum social benefit. A.C. Pigou has called it the principle of maximum aggregate welfare.

Public expenditure creates utility for those people on whom the amount is spent. When the volume of expenditure is small with a slighter increase in it, the additional utility is very high. As the total public expenditure goes on increasing in course of time, the law of diminishing marginal utility operates. People derive less of satisfaction from additional unit of public expenditure as the government spends more and more. That is, after a stage, every increase in public expenditure creates less and less benefit for the people. Taxation, on the other hand, imposes burden on the people.

So, when the volume of taxation becomes high, every further increase in taxation increases the burden of it more and more. People under go greater scarifies for every additional unit of taxation. The best policy of the government is to balance both sides of fiscal operations by comparing “the burden of tax” and “the benefits of public expenditure”. The State should balance the social burden of taxation and social benefits of Public expenditure in order to have maximum social advantage.

Attainment of maximum social advantage requires that;

a) Both public expenditure and taxation should be carried out up to certain limits and no more.

b) Public expenditure should be utilized among the various uses in an optimum manner, and

c) The different sources of taxation should be so tapped that the aggregate scarifies entailed is the minimum.

Assumptions of this theory:

1.All taxes result in sacrifice and all public expenditures lead to benefit.

2. Public revenue consists of only taxes and there is no other source of income to the government.

3. The govt. has no surplus or deficit budget but only a balanced budget. 

Diagrammatical Explanation of the theory of maximum social advantages

In the above diagram, MSS is the marginal social sacrifice curve sloping upward from left to right. This rising curve indicates that the marginal social sacrifice goes on increasing with every additional dose of taxation.   MSB is the marginal social benefit curve sloping downwards from the left to right. This falling curve indicates that the marginal social benefit diminishes with every additional dose of public expenditure. The two curves MSS and MSB intersect each other at the point P. PM represent both marginal social sacrifice as well as marginal social benefit. Both are equal at OM which represents the maximum social advantage.

1. Non measurability of social sacrifice and social benefit: The major drawback of this principle is that it is not possible in actual practice to measure the MSS and MSB involved in the fiscal operation of the state.

2. Non applicability of the low of equimarginal utility in public expenditure: The low of equimarginal utility may be applicable to private expenditure but certainly not to public expenditure.

3. Neglect non-tax revenue: The principle says that the entire public expenditure is financed by taxation. But, in practice, a significant portion of public expenditure is also financed by other sources like public borrowing, profits from public sector enterprises, imposition of fees, penalties etc.

4. Lack of divisibility: The marginal benefit from public expenditure and marginal sacrifice from taxation can be equated only when public expenditure and taxation are divided into smaller units. But this is not possible practically.

5. Assumption of static condition: Conditions in an economy are not static and are continuously changing. What might be considered as the point of maximum social advantage under some conditions may not be so under some other.

6. Misuse of government funds: The principle of Maximum social advantage is based on the assumption that the government funds are utilized in the most effective manner to generate marginal social benefit. However, quite often a large share of government funds is misused for unproductive purposes

7. "The govt. has no surplus or deficit budget but only a balanced budget."- is an invalid assumption.

In simple words, financial refers to such a system or method by which one can analyse the financial working of the public authority. Thus the focuses on the procedure which ensure the lawful use of public funds. However the concept has been differently defined as under:

Prof .M.S Kenderic, “The financial administration refers to the financial measurement of govt. including the preparation of budget method of administering the various revenue resources the custody of the public fund, procedures in expending money, keeping the financial records and the like. These functions are important to the effective conduct of operation of public finance”

Prof. Dimock, “Financial administration consists of a series of steps whereby funds and made available certain official under procedures which will ensure their lawful and efficient use. The main ingredients are budgeting, accounting, auditing and purchase and supply.”

For the success of financial administration of the Government, different constitution play imperative role. These agencies can be grouped as:

In Parliamentary Government, there is a principle that no demands for grants can be made except on recommendation of the executive. It is therefore In India; executive refers to the Central Government. Since, Finance Ministry is responsible for the administration of the finance of the Central Government, even then it performs the policy making function and tries its best to get the final approval of the legislature.

The various scheme and proposals of the different ministries are included in the budget after consultations and discussions with the finance ministry. After the final approval of the budget by the parliament, it seeks to ensure that the amounts are properly spent in accordance with the provision of budget. Therefore, it is the finance ministry which frames rules and regulations about the preparation and executive of the budget. The ministry of finance has been divided into four departments, viz

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Ans: Zero Based Budgeting: Zero Base Budgeting is a new technique for the preparation of budgets. It involves fresh evaluation of every item of expenditure as if it were a new item. It is reconsideration of each item of expenditure from the very beginning. It is like assuming that a zero expenditure has been incurred on a project at the time of its review, although the project may be in existence from a long time and may have involved some expenditure also. The review is meant to provide a justification or otherwise of the project as a whole in the light of objectives set for it and priorities of the society. The procedure is altogether different from the usual procedure followed in India.

Peter A. Phyrr describes, the concept of zero base budgeting as an operating, planning and budgeting process that requires each manager to justify a budget request in detail from scratch…….” It means, the budget as a whole is considered rather than to examine incremental change only.

According to Prof. R. A. Musgrave, “the idea of zero base budgeting is to consider the budget as a whole, rather than to examine incremental changes only.”

Essentially, the concept of zero base budgeting is that all the financial requirements of a budget unit are analyzed, evaluated and justifies annually and not just the increased or additional requirements. In more practical way, zero base budgeting means the evaluation and prioritization of all programmes at different levels of effects. To be simpler, under zero base budgeting, each department ministry is required to justify its budget requests from the bottom up, evaluating alternative programme packages and ranking programmes so as to select the best alternative and allocate resources accordingly. The budget is considered as a whole and a fresh one, i.e. from zero base.

a) Zerobase: ZBB works on the principle that every year, the projected expenditure for each project/programme must be start from zero. It means all budget requests should be considered freshly for every year with cost-benefit analysis.ZBB never uses the previous year’s amounts so as to eliminate the past mistakes.

b) Focus is on activities/programmes: The focus is on programs or activities instead of functional departments.

c) Best suited to discretionary costs: ZBB is best suited to discretionary costs, for example, advertising, research development and training costs.

d) Decision packages: A unit makes its budget request by preparing ‘decision packages’ for each activity it undertakes. Funding decisions are based on activity.

e) Cost-effective: ZBB helps policy makers to achieve more cost-effective delivery of public services.

f) Bottom-up approach: ZBB starts from the lowest level activity and then moves upwards.

g) Accountability: It makes the functionaries accountable for the amount they are responsible for. ZBB model was formulated to correct certain flaws of traditional budgeting system, which does not allow authorities to discover optional processes.

Ans: MEANING OF PUBLIC REVENUE AND ITS SOURCES

A government needs income for the performance of a variety of functions and meeting its expenditure. Thus, the income of the government through all sources like taxes, borrowings, fees, and donations etc. is called public revenue or public income.

However, Prof. Dalton has defined the term in two senses – broader and narrow sense. In broad sense, it includes all the income and receipts, irrespective of their sources and nature, which the government happens to obtain during any period of time. In the narrow sense, it includes only those sources of income of the government which are described as revenue resources. In broader view of the concept is that is includes all loans which the government raises under the term ‘public revenue’ or public income. The distinction in both can also be explained as the term ‘public revenue’ used in public finance. It includes only those sources of government income which are not subject to repayment. In a broad sense, it means all receipts of the government irrespective of the fact whether they are subject to repayment or not.

In a modern welfare state, public revenue is of two types:

(a) Tax Revenue: A fund raised through the various taxes is referred to as tax revenue. Taxes are compulsory contributions imposed by the government on its citizens to meet its general expenses incurred for the common good, without any corresponding benefits to the tax payer. Seligman defines a tax thus: “A tax is a compulsory contribution from a person to the government to defray the expenses incurred in the common interest of all, without reference to specific benefits conferred.

Examples of Tax Revenue 

(b) Non Tax Revenue: The revenue obtained by the government from sources other then tax is called Non-Tax Revenue. The sources of non-tax revenue are:

1. Fees: Fees are another important source of revenue for the government. A fee is charged by public authorities for rendering a service to the citizens. The government provides certain services and charges certain fees for them. For example, fees are charged for issuing of passports, driving licenses, etc.

2. Fines or Penalties: Fines or penalties are imposed as a form of punishment for breach of law or non fulfillment or certain conditions or for failure to observe some regulations. Like taxes, fines are compulsory payments without quid pro quo. But while taxes are generally imposed to collect revenue. Fines are imposed as a form of punishment or to prevent people from breaking the law.

3. Surplus from Public Enterprises: The Government also gets revenue by way of surplus from public enterprises. In India, the Government has set up several public sector enterprises to provide public goods and services. Some of the public sector enterprises do make a good amount of profits. The profits or dividends which the government gets can be utilized for public expenditure.

4. Special assessment of betterment levy: It is a kind of special charge levied on certain members of the community who are beneficiaries of certain government activities or public projects. For example, due to a public park in a locality or due to the construction of a road, people in that locality may experience an appreciation in the value of their property or land. Thus, due to public expenditure, some people may experience 'unearned increments' in their asset holding.

5. Grants and Gifts: Gifts are Voluntary contributions by individuals or institutions to the government. Gifts are significant source of revenue during war and emergency. A grant from one government to another is an important sources of revenue in the modern days. The government at the Centre provides grants to State governments and the State governments provide grants to the local government to carry out their functions.

6. Deficit Financing: Deficit means an excess of public expenditure over public revenue. This excess may be met by borrowings from the market, borrowings from abroad, by the central bank creating currency. In case of borrowing from abroad, there cannot be compulsion for the lenders, but in case of internal borrowings there may be compulsion.

The public revenue of one country differs in amount from that of another country. The difference is due partly to the size of country and partly to other causes. India is not a small country. It is sub-continental in itself. Its stages are as big as some counties of the west. But its public revenue is not very big in size. What does the size of public revenue then indicate. It depends on the following aspects.

1. Sign of Prosperity: A man who has a big income is in general respected more than the other who has a smaller income. It is only rarely that people with small income are held in high esteem by society. And in the same way a country that has a small volume of public revenue is not regarded as a big power and consequently not respected by other counties. A State that has a big volume of public revenue considered as a power to be reckoned with. America and United Kingdom have public revenue that is several times higher than that of our country. And we knows they do, that they can afford to do things that require much money.

2. Welfare of Country: Other things being equal, however, the welfare of a country can be judged from the size of its public revenue. A country whose resources, both natural and human, are not fully developed is a poor and backward country. And the government of such a country must necessarily be poor also. And with poverty of wealth goes also the poverty of welfare unless other things are not the same.

3. Composition of Public Revenue: Yet, it is not merely the size of public revenue the one should look to in order to form some idea of the prosperity or otherwise of a country. The composition of public revenue is as much important as its size. If a large part of the wealth of the government comes from the poor it is not a sign of a healthy state of affairs.

4. Mere Availability of Means: Public revenue is only, a means and the mere availability of means indicates nothing. All depends on how the means are utilized. It is not safe, therefore, to reckon with merely the size of revenue. Some countries of the world have public revenue in thousands of millions. The tendency today is on the one hand to spend an increasing percentage of public revenue on social services and social security. On the other hand, everywhere more and more money is being diverted to the building up of strong defensive and offensive force.

5. Manner of Public Revenue: A word may again be said about the manner in which revenue is obtained from the people. Every government tries to get more money from the rich that from the poor. But not all succeed in so doing. Some fail because they are ignorant and some fail because they are careless. And we have to say also that some fail because they are mischievous.

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Ans: Meaning and Definition of Tax

In simple words, it is a compulsory payment by the people. If a person defies the tax payment, he may be punished in the court of law. However, different economists tried to define taxation in a different style as stated below :

Adam Smith : “A tax is a contribution from citizens for the support of the state.”

Saligman: “A tax is compulsory payment from a person to govt. to defray the expenses incurred in the common interests of all without reference to special benefits conferred.”

Bastable : “Tax is a compulsory contribution of the wealth of a person or body of persons for the service of the public powers.”

Taussig : “The essence of a tax is distinguished from other charges by govt. in the absence of direct quid pro quo between the tax-payer and public authority.”

Dalton : “A tax is a compulsory contribution imposed by a public authority irrespective of the exact amount of service rendered to the tax-payer in return and not imposed as penalty for any legal offence.”

From these mentioned definitions, it is clear that the taxes are not a voluntary contribution by the tax-payer but it is compulsory in nature. Therefore, one can say that every payment by individuals to the state is not a tax. It is just like withdrawal from the people’s income which reduces their purchasing power. It should be noted here that tax checks production where as public expenditure may spurt the productive process. In the opinion of Dr. R.N. Bhargava, taxes are as much compulsory as other payment, like fees etc. In this context, Dalton says, “Where taxation, taken alone, may check production, public expenditure taken alone, should almost certainly increase it.” So, tax is a necessary contribution by the tax-payer to social objectives like reducing inequalities in income and wealth, securing high level of employment as well as promoting economic stability with growth.

A good or ideal tax system is one which fulfils all the canons of taxation, which is helpful to provide sufficient revenue to the government for meeting the expenditure and at the same time offer minimum inconvenience to the tax-payer. According to Edmund Burke, “It is difficult to tax and to please as it is to love and to be wise.” That we mean by a good or deal tax system is simply the predominance of good taxes; taxes which fulfils most the canons taxation. The following characteristics should be there in order to be called a good or deal tax system:

Ans: Effects of public expenditure can be studied under the following heads:

Effects of Public Expenditure on Production: While analyzing the effects of public expenditure, Dalton very correctly said that just as taxation, other things being equal should reduce production as little as possible, so the public expenditure should increase it as much as possible. He further added that the level of production and employment in any country depends upon the following three factors:

Effects of Public Expenditure on distribution: Public expenditure has its effects not only on production but is also a most powerful weapon in the hands of the government for bringing about an equitable distribution of wealth. For bringing about an equitable and just distribution of wealth the government can use not only its taxation policy but public expenditure policy can also help to a great extent in achieving this very objective. In fact, the role of taxation and public expenditure in removing inequalities of income is complementary and supplementary. If the government intends to minimize the economic inequalities that existed in the society, it should levy maximum about of taxation on richer sections of the community, because their taxable capacity is undoubtedly high. The income so earned through taxation should be spent on providing various types of facilities, subsidies and amenities to the poorer section of the community. For example, the state can extend to the poor benefits of old age pensions, social insurance, free medical aid, cheap housing, interest-free loans, subsidized food etc. This will automatically bring redistribution of wealth (national income) in favour of the poorer section of the community. On the contrary, public expenditure which confers larger benefits to the richer sections of the community, e.g., subsidies on luxury goods, provision of subsidized milk, other foodstuff etc. tends to widen the gap of inequalities. As Dalton puts, “That system of public expenditure is best which has the strongest tendency to reduce inequalities of income”. Public expenditure has, thus, an important rule in reducing economic inequalities in the community.

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Ans: Meaning of Public Expenditure

There has been a persistent and continuous increase in public expenditure in counties all over the world. It is due to the continuous expansion in the activities of the state and other public bodies on several fronts. The modern governments not only perform such primary functions as the civil administration as well as defence of the country, but also take considerable interest in promoting economic development of their countries. Today, the state is taking active part in social and economic matters, such as education, public health, removal of poverty and in commercial and industrial development. The public expenditure has increased enormously in recent years mostly due to the development activities of the state. Hence, the increase in public expenditure is fully justified.

One of the most important features of the present century is the phenomenal growth of public expenditure. Some of the important reasons for the growth of public expenditure are the following.

1) Welfare state: Modern states are no more police states. They have to look in to the welfare of the masses for which the state has to perform a number of functions. They have to create and undertake employment opportunities, social security measures and other welfare activities. All these require enormous expenditure.

2) Defence expenditure: Modern warfare is very expensive. Wars and possibilities of wars have forced the nation to be always equipped with arms. This causes great amount of public expenditure.

3) Growth of democracy: The form of democratic government is highly expensive. The conduct of elections, maintenance of democratic institutions like legislatures etc. cause great expenditure.

4) Growth of population: tremendous growth of population necessitates enormous spending on the part of the modern governments. For meeting the needs of the growing population more educational institutions, food materials, hospitals, roads and other amenities of life are to be provided.

5) Rise in price level: Rises in prices have considerably enhanced public expenditure in recent years. Higher prices mean higher spending on the part of the govt. on items like payment of salaries, purchase of goods and services and so on.

6) Expansion public sector: Counties aiming at socialistic pattern of society have to give more importance to public sector. Consequent development of public sector enhances public expenditure.

7) Development expenditure: for implementing developmental programs like Five Year Plans, Modern governments are incurring huge expenditure.

8) Public debt: Along with debt rises the problem like payment of interest and repayment of the principal amount. This results in an increase in public expenditure.

9) Grants and loans to state governments and UTs: It is an important feature of public expenditure of the central government of India. The government provides assistance in the forms of grants-in-aid and loans to the states and to the UTs.

10) Poverty alleviation programs: As poverty ratio is high, huge amount of expenditure is required for implementing alleviation programmes.

Increase in public expenditure can be justified on the following grounds :

1. Answer the following questions:                                          1x8=8

Ans: Deficit Financing: Deficit means an excess of public expenditure over public revenue. This excess may be met by borrowings from the market, borrowings from abroad, by the central bank creating currency. In case of borrowing from abroad, there cannot be compulsion for the lenders, but in case of internal borrowings there may be compulsion.

Ans: There is great socio-economic significance of public finance, both in developed and developing countries. In developed country countries, price-stability and full employment are the main economic goals of public finance. In developing countries, rapid economic development through capital formulation and creation of infrastructure art the important goals of public finance operations. Socially equitable distributions of income, reduction of inequalities in income are some important functions of public finance operations. The importance of public finance can be clarified from the following functions.

1. TO INCREASE THE RATE OF SAVING AND INVESTMENT: Most of the people spend their income on consumption. Saving is very low so the investment is also low. The government can encourage the saving and investment.

2. TO SECURE EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH: Unequal distribution of income and wealth is the basic problem of the under developed countries. The rich are getting richer and richer while the poor are becoming poorer and poorer. So for the equal distribution of income and wealth there is need of government.

3. OPTIMUM ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES: Fiscal measures like taxation and public expenditure programmers can greatly affect the allocation of resources in various occupation and sectors.

4. CAPITAL FORMULATION AND GROWTH: Fiscal policy will be designed in a manner to perform two functions as of expanding investment in public and private enterprises and by diverting resources from socially less desirable to more desirable investment channels.

5. PROMOTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: The state can play a prominent role in promoting economic development especially through control and regulation of economic activities. It is fiscal policy which can promote economic development.

Ans: Features of Zero Base Budgeting

a) Zerobase: ZBB works on the principle that every year, the projected expenditure for each project/programme must be start from zero. It means all budget requests should be considered freshly for every year with cost-benefit analysis.ZBB never uses the previous year’s amounts so as to eliminate the past mistakes.

b) Focus is on activities/programmes: The focus is on programs or activities instead of functional departments.

c) Best suited to discretionary costs: ZBB is best suited to discretionary costs, for example, advertising, research development and training costs.

d) Decision packages: A unit makes its budget request by preparing ‘decision packages’ for each activity it undertakes. Funding decisions are based on activity.

e) Cost-effective: ZBB helps policy makers to achieve more cost-effective delivery of public services.

f) Bottom-up approach: ZBB starts from the lowest level activity and then moves upwards.

g) Accountability: It makes the functionaries accountable for the amount they are responsible for. ZBB model was formulated to correct certain flaws of traditional budgeting system, which does not allow authorities to discover optional processes.

Ans: Tax Revenue: A fund raised through the various taxes is referred to as tax revenue. Taxes are compulsory contributions imposed by the government on its citizens to meet its general expenses incurred for the common good, without any corresponding benefits to the tax payer. Seligman defines a tax thus: “A tax is a compulsory contribution from a person to the government to defray the expenses incurred in the common interest of all, without reference to specific benefits conferred. Non Tax Revenue: The revenue obtained by the government from sources other then tax is called Non-Tax Revenue. The sources of non-tax revenue are fees, fines, surplus from public enterprises.

Ans: Importance (Significance) of Public Finance

There is great socio-economic significance of public finance, both in developed and developing countries. In developed country countries, price-stability and full employment are the main economic goals of public finance. In developing countries, rapid economic development through capital formulation and creation of infrastructure art the important goals of public finance operations. Socially equitable distributions of income, reduction of inequalities in income are some important functions of public finance operations. The importance of public finance can be clarified from the following functions.

1. TO INCREASE THE RATE OF SAVING AND INVESTMENT: Most of the people spend their income on consumption. Saving is very low so the investment is also low. The government can encourage the saving and investment.

2. TO SECURE EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH: Unequal distribution of income and wealth is the basic problem of the under developed countries. The rich are getting richer and richer while the poor are becoming poorer and poorer. So for the equal distribution of income and wealth there is need of government.

3. OPTIMUM ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES: Fiscal measures like taxation and public expenditure programmers can greatly affect the allocation of resources in various occupation and sectors.

4. CAPITAL FORMULATION AND GROWTH: Fiscal policy will be designed in a manner to perform two functions as of expanding investment in public and private enterprises and by diverting resources from socially less desirable to more desirable investment channels.

5. PROMOTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: The state can play a prominent role in promoting economic development especially through control and regulation of economic activities. It is fiscal policy which can promote economic development.

6. IMPLEMENTATION OF PLANNING: Under democratic planning fiscal policy plays crucial role as financial plan is as much important as physical plan and the implementation of the financial will obviously depend upon the uses of fiscal measures.

7. INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDING: Public finance helps to build up well-development physical and institutional infrastructure.

8. TO CONTROL INFLATION: The imbalance between demand for and supply of real resources may lead to inflations to under-development countries inflation ruins the entire economic structure of the national and the process of economic development in these countries comes to stand still. So to check inflation, budgetary policies can be used by the government.

Public Finance occupies great significance in an underdeveloped or developing country. According to R. J. Chelliah, “Public finance has a positive and significant role in the context of economic development.” The importance of public finance in an underdeveloped/developing country like India may be summarized as under:

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One of the important principles of public finance is the so – called Principle of Maximum Social Advantage explained by Professor Hugh Dalton. Just like an individual seeks to maximize his satisfaction or welfare by the use of his resources, the state ought to maximize social advantage or benefit from the resources at its command.

The principles of maximum social advantage are applied to determine whether the tax or the expenditure has proved to be of the optimum benefit. Hence, the principle is called the principle of public finance. According to Dalton, “This (Principle) lies at the very root of public finance” He again says “The best system of public finance is that which secures the maximum social advantage from the operations which it conducts.” It may be also called the principle of maximum social benefit. A.C. Pigou has called it the principle of maximum aggregate welfare.

Public expenditure creates utility for those people on whom the amount is spent. When the volume of expenditure is small with a slighter increase in it, the additional utility is very high. As the total public expenditure goes on increasing in course of time, the law of diminishing marginal utility operates. People derive less of satisfaction from additional unit of public expenditure as the government spends more and more. That is, after a stage, every increase in public expenditure creates less and less benefit for the people. Taxation, on the other hand, imposes burden on the people.

So, when the volume of taxation becomes high, every further increase in taxation increases the burden of it more and more. People under go greater scarifies for every additional unit of taxation. The best policy of the government is to balance both sides of fiscal operations by comparing “the burden of tax” and “the benefits of public expenditure”. The State should balance the social burden of taxation and social benefits of Public expenditure in order to have maximum social advantage.

Attainment of maximum social advantage requires that;

a) Both public expenditure and taxation should be carried out up to certain limits and no more.

b) Public expenditure should be utilized among the various uses in an optimum manner, and

c) The different sources of taxation should be so tapped that the aggregate scarifies entailed is the minimum.

Assumptions of this theory:

1.All taxes result in sacrifice and all public expenditures lead to benefit.

2. Public revenue consists of only taxes and there is no other source of income to the government.

3. The govt. has no surplus or deficit budget but only a balanced budget. 

Diagrammatical Explanation of the theory of maximum social advantages

In the above diagram, MSS is the marginal social sacrifice curve sloping upward from left to right. This rising curve indicates that the marginal social sacrifice goes on increasing with every additional dose of taxation.   MSB is the marginal social benefit curve sloping downwards from the left to right. This falling curve indicates that the marginal social benefit diminishes with every additional dose of public expenditure. The two curves MSS and MSB intersect each other at the point P. PM represent both marginal social sacrifice as well as marginal social benefit. Both are equal at OM which represents the maximum social advantage.

1. Non measurability of social sacrifice and social benefit: The major drawback of this principle is that it is not possible in actual practice to measure the MSS and MSB involved in the fiscal operation of the state.

2. Non applicability of the low of equimarginal utility in public expenditure: The low of equimarginal utility may be applicable to private expenditure but certainly not to public expenditure.

3. Neglect non-tax revenue: The principle says that the entire public expenditure is financed by taxation. But, in practice, a significant portion of public expenditure is also financed by other sources like public borrowing, profits from public sector enterprises, imposition of fees, penalties etc.

4. Lack of divisibility: The marginal benefit from public expenditure and marginal sacrifice from taxation can be equated only when public expenditure and taxation are divided into smaller units. But this is not possible practically.

5. Assumption of static condition: Conditions in an economy are not static and are continuously changing. What might be considered as the point of maximum social advantage under some conditions may not be so under some other.

6. Misuse of government funds: The principle of Maximum social advantage is based on the assumption that the government funds are utilized in the most effective manner to generate marginal social benefit. However, quite often a large share of government funds is misused for unproductive purposes

7. "The govt. has no surplus or deficit budget but only a balanced budget."- is an invalid assumption.

Adam Smith was the first writer to give a detailed and comprehensive statement of the principles of taxation. Basically, he laid stress on the ways in which an economy could increase its productive capacity and ultimately achieve a higher rate of economic growth. According to him, if the principles enunciated by him, were adopted in a full spirit, the govt. would have a very sound taxation policy. Findlay Shirras has strongly commented on the contribution made by Adam Smith, “No genius, however, has succeeded in condensing the principles into such clear and simple canons as has Adam Smith.” Adam Smith has enumerated the following four canons of taxation which are accepted universally:

In other words, the principle of benefit states that the burden of taxation should be fair and just. Thus, rich people must be subjected to higher taxation in comparison to poor. The higher the income and higher the tax, the lower the income of lower the tax.

With this, a tax-payer will be able to keep equilibrium between his income and expenditure. There should not be any embarrassment and confusion about the payment of tax. Every tax-payer must know the time of payment, manner and mode of payment, so that he may adjust his expenditures accordingly. In the words of Adam Smith, “The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain the not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, all ought to be clear and plain to the contributor and to every other person.” This certainty creates confidence in the contributor of the tax.

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Ans: Taxable capacity of a country: Taxable capacity refers to the maximum capacity that a country can contribute by way of taxation both in the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. It represents maximum limit to which the government can tax the people of the country. If the government exceeds this limit, it shall result in over taxation, which, besides being injurious to the long-term interests of the community, may pose a serious threat, to the political stability of the country concerned. The concept of taxable capacity, thus, indicates the limit to which the government can tax the citizens.

Taxation Inquiry Commission defined it as, Taxation capacity of different sections of the community may be said to refer to the degree of taxation, broadly speaking, beyond which productive effort and efficiency as a whole begin to suffer. The concept of taxable capacity has been interpreted by the economists in the following two senses: (i) the absolute taxable capacity of one single community, and (ii) the relative taxable capacity of two or more communities.

The taxable capacity of a country/community/nation depends on the factors given below:

There has been a persistent and continuous increase in public expenditure in counties all over the world. It is due to the continuous expansion in the activities of the state and other public bodies on several fronts. The modern governments not only perform such primary functions as the civil administration as well as defence of the country, but also take considerable interest in promoting economic development of their countries. Today, the state is taking active part in social and economic matters, such as education, public health, removal of poverty and in commercial and industrial development. The public expenditure has increased enormously in recent years mostly due to the development activities of the state. Hence, the increase in public expenditure is fully justified.

One of the most important features of the present century is the phenomenal growth of public expenditure. Some of the important reasons for the growth of public expenditure are the following.

1) Welfare state: Modern states are no more police states. They have to look in to the welfare of the masses for which the state has to perform a number of functions. They have to create and undertake employment opportunities, social security measures and other welfare activities. All these require enormous expenditure.

2) Defence expenditure: Modern warfare is very expensive. Wars and possibilities of wars have forced the nation to be always equipped with arms. This causes great amount of public expenditure.

3) Growth of democracy: The form of democratic government is highly expensive. The conduct of elections, maintenance of democratic institutions like legislatures etc. cause great expenditure.

4) Growth of population: tremendous growth of population necessitates enormous spending on the part of the modern governments. For meeting the needs of the growing population more educational institutions, food materials, hospitals, roads and other amenities of life are to be provided.

5) Rise in price level: Rises in prices have considerably enhanced public expenditure in recent years. Higher prices mean higher spending on the part of the govt. on items like payment of salaries, purchase of goods and services and so on.

6) Expansion public sector: Counties aiming at socialistic pattern of society have to give more importance to public sector. Consequent development of public sector enhances public expenditure.

7) Development expenditure: for implementing developmental programs like Five Year Plans, Modern governments are incurring huge expenditure.

8) Public debt: Along with debt rises the problem like payment of interest and repayment of the principal amount. This results in an increase in public expenditure.

9) Grants and loans to state governments and UTs: It is an important feature of public expenditure of the central government of India. The government provides assistance in the forms of grants-in-aid and loans to the states and to the UTs.

10) Poverty alleviation programs: As poverty ratio is high, huge amount of expenditure is required for implementing alleviation programmes.

Increase in public expenditure can be justified on the following grounds :

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Ans: Effects of Public Expenditure

Public expenditure incurred according to the sound principles of public finance, exerts healthy effects on the entire economy of a nation. The ultimate effects of public expenditure, in the form of greater production, more equitable distribution of wealth and all-round economic development of a country, are always expected to be present, if the expenditure is incurred after considerable thought and utmost rationality.

Gone are the days when it was advocated that the state should interfere the least in economic activities and the government is merely an agent for the people – responsible for the maintenance of justice, police and army. In those days public expenditure on economic activities was normally considered a waste. Contrary to this, a new concept of public expenditure has been developed by the modern economists. Today, public expenditure is regarded as a means of securing social ends rather than just being a mere financial mechanism. In present times, Wagner’s Law of Increasing Public Expenditure – both extensively and intensively, is considered universally true. The trend of rising public expenditure is not confined to any particular country, but it is found in almost all countries of the world, irrespective of its socio-economic and political set-up. Every public expenditure is considered desirable, when it is not wasteful, but has a positive effect on production, distribution, consumption and thus maximizes economic and social welfare of the country as a whole.

Effects of public expenditure can be studied under the following heads:

Effects of Public Expenditure on Production: While analyzing the effects of public expenditure, Dalton very correctly said that just as taxation, other things being equal should reduce production as little as possible, so the public expenditure should increase it as much as possible. He further added that the level of production and employment in any country depends upon the following three factors:

Effects of Public Expenditure on distribution: Public expenditure has its effects not only on production but is also a most powerful weapon in the hands of the government for bringing about an equitable distribution of wealth. For bringing about an equitable and just distribution of wealth the government can use not only its taxation policy but public expenditure policy can also help to a great extent in achieving this very objective. In fact, the role of taxation and public expenditure in removing inequalities of income is complementary and supplementary. If the government intends to minimize the economic inequalities that existed in the society, it should levy maximum about of taxation on richer sections of the community, because their taxable capacity is undoubtedly high. The income so earned through taxation should be spent on providing various types of facilities, subsidies and amenities to the poorer section of the community. For example, the state can extend to the poor benefits of old age pensions, social insurance, free medical aid, cheap housing, interest-free loans, subsidized food etc. This will automatically bring redistribution of wealth (national income) in favour of the poorer section of the community. On the contrary, public expenditure which confers larger benefits to the richer sections of the community, e.g., subsidies on luxury goods, provision of subsidized milk, other foodstuff etc. tends to widen the gap of inequalities. As Dalton puts, “That system of public expenditure is best which has the strongest tendency to reduce inequalities of income”. Public expenditure has, thus, an important rule in reducing economic inequalities in the community.

Zero Base Budgeting is a new technique for the preparation of budgets. It involves fresh evaluation of every item of expenditure as if it were a new item. It is reconsideration of each item of expenditure from the very beginning. It is like assuming that a zero expenditure has been incurred on a project at the time of its review, although the project may be in existence from a long time and may have involved some expenditure also. The review is meant to provide a justification or otherwise of the project as a whole in the light of objectives set for it and priorities of the society. The procedure is altogether different from the usual procedure followed in India.

Peter A. Phyrr describes, the concept of zero base budgeting as an operating, planning and budgeting process that requires each manager to justify a budget request in detail from scratch…….” It means, the budget as a whole is considered rather than to examine incremental change only.

According to Prof. R. A. Musgrave, “the idea of zero base budgeting is to consider the budget as a whole, rather than to examine incremental changes only.”

Essentially, the concept of zero base budgeting is that all the financial requirements of a budget unit are analyzed, evaluated and justifies annually and not just the increased or additional requirements. In more practical way, zero base budgeting means the evaluation and prioritization of all programmes at different levels of effects. To be simpler, under zero base budgeting, each department ministry is required to justify its budget requests from the bottom up, evaluating alternative programme packages and ranking programmes so as to select the best alternative and allocate resources accordingly. The budget is considered as a whole and a fresh one, i.e. from zero base.

Performance budgeting is generally understood as a system or technique of presentation of public expenditure in terms of functions, programmes, performance units, i.e. activities, projects etc, reflecting primarily the government output and its cost. The focus in a performance budgeting is basically different from that in the conventional budgets. The two approaches differ in their scope and context. Under the performance budgeting, emphasis is shifted from the budget as a means of accomplishment to the accomplishment itself. If concerns itself primarily with the objectives aimed at by the government rather than with the outlays incurred on several projects. According to U. S. Bureau of Budget, “A performance is one which presents the purpose the objectives for which funds are required, the cost of the programmes proposed for achieving those objectives and quantitative data measuring the accomplishment and work performed under each programme.”

Under performance budgeting system, the overall budget is divided into functions based on the major purpose of government and then subdivided into programme and activities, funds being granted for doing a specific quantity of work. Performance budgeting implies that the budget statement should indicate the actual achievements expected by a Ministry over a period of time from certain amount of expenditure. It forces attention on the size and cost of programme to be implemented.

Objectives of each program are ascertained clearly and then the resources are applied after specifying them clearly. The results expected from such activities are also laid down. Annual, quarterly and monthly targets are determined for the entire organization. These targets are broken down for each activity center. The next step is to set up various productivity or performance ratios and finally target for each program activity is fixed. The targets are compared with the actual results achieved. Thus the procedure for the performance budgets include allocation of resources, execution of the budget and periodic reporting at regular intervals.

The budgets are initially compiled by the various agencies such as Government Department, public undertakings etc. Thereafter these budgets move on to the authorities responsible for reviewing the performance budgets. Once the higher authorities decide about the funds, the amount sanctioned are communicated and the work is started. It is the duty of these agencies to start the work in time, to ensure the regular flow of expenditure, against the physical targets, prevent over runs under spending and furnish report to the higher authorities regarding the physical progress achieved.

In the final phase of performance budgetary process, progress reports are to be submitted periodically to higher authorities to indicate broadly, the physical performance to be achieved, the expenditure incurred and the variances together with explanations for the variances.

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