The Financial Inequality of Bangkok Metropolitan Administrative’s Vicinity Municipalities

Abstract

     This study is entitled “The Financial Inequality of Bangkok Metropolitan Administrative’s Vicinity municipalities.”The objectives of this research were 1) to study the basic figures of local finance of metropolitan municipalities; 2) to study the local fiscal disparity of metropolitan municipalities and 3) to study fiscal methods and measurements to reduce unfairness of local government in order to lead to equity in formulating the
public policies. This was a mixed research methodology by using the qualitative approach to collect inductive data as well as using the quantitative approach. It was divided into three steps: 1) the study of data base by conducting in-depth interviews with 25 officials; 2) the study of the local finance disparity of municipalities in the metropolitan area from a focus group discussions with eight officials and 3) the study of fiscal methods
and measurements to reduce unfairness using the Delphi technique with 22 financial experts. The research tools were descriptive analysis, in-depth interview, focus group discussions and Delphi technique.

     The results of this research revealed that the six municipalities are different in area,population, revenue, expenditure and strategy development plan. The local fiscaldisparity of municipalities in the metropolitan area indicates that most municipalities have low revenues, especially from local levied tax. The tax collection capability is limited and the tax collection authority and revenue are non-systematic. The tax-paying potential of each area is also dramatically different. Budgets are allocated piece by piece while the grant-in-aid is given by case which caused by lack of working autonomy. To enable the efficiency in municipality management, the grant-in-aid should be improved in order to create financial equity. The improvement of revenue and expenditure of municipalities should be supported as well as encouraging how to be good citizen by paying tax regularly. reduce the tax-paying avoidance . Financial methods to reduce inequity in local government include decentralization, revenue from local levied taxes, revenue from shared taxes and grant-in-aid.