Last month, I attended the 2014 National General Assembly of Local Government. At the conference, the ALGA adopted an urgent resolution which called on the Commonwealth Government to restore indexation of Financial Assistance Grants in line with CPI and population growth immediately.
In Japan, we have the same kind of system as GST revenue grants and Financial Assistance Grants, called Local Allocation Tax Grants.
The LATGs are categorised as general revenue assistance from the central government to local governments. This mechanism guarantees a portion of national tax revenue as a common financial resource for local governments. The LATGs are distributed in accordance with prescribed standards in order to compensate for the imbalance in tax revenue among local governments so that all local governments can maintain a basic standard of services.
Similarly to what the ALGA resolution said in Australia’s case, in Japan, the LATGs are vitally important for local government to provide equitable levels of services to all Japanese communities. As the national budget drafting season is approaching, Japanese local governments’ greatest concern is how much LGATs are ensured for the next fiscal year.
