Public finance
studies the income-getting and income-spending activities of the public bodies
or the state. Private finance deals with the way a private person gets and
spends his income. There are certain differences between the principles
underlying public finances and those of private finances. These are explained
below.
1. Adjustment of Income and Expenditure:
An individual usually adjusts his expenditure to his income. But the public
authority generally adjusts its income to its expenditure. In other words, we
can say that an individual cuts his coat according to his cloth. While the
public authority first decides the size of the coat and then tries to produce
cloth according to the size of its coat. The public authority prepares on
estimate of the total expenditure to be incurred during a fiscal year and then
devices ways and means to raise the required amount. The individual on the
other hand tries to live within his own means. His expenditure is generally
determined by his income.
2. Unit of Time: The public authority
balances its budget during a given period which is generally a year. For an
individual there is no period of time in the course of which the budget must be
balanced. The individual generally continues earning and spending without
keeping any record of his budget by a particular date. The public authority
however has to keep full records of its income and expenditure and the accounts
are to be in balance during the financial year.
3. An individual cannot borrow from
himself: If at any time an individual is in need of money, he cannot borrow
from himself. He can raise the loan from other individuals or can utilize his
past savings, but he cannot borrow internally. The public authority, on the
other hand, can borrow internally from its own people and externally from other
nations.
4. Issue of Currency: Government has full
control over the issue of currency in the country. No other person except the
state can print notes. If an individual does so, he will be put behind the
bars.
5. Provision for the Future: The
government has to make a solid provision for the future. It spends large
amounts of the money on those projects which the future generation is only to
benefit. The individuals on the other hand are not generally liberal and
far-sighted. They discount the future at a higher rate and so usually make
inadequate provisional for the future.
6. Big and deliberate changes in public
finance: It is easier for the government to make big and deliberate changes in
its income, and expenditure but for an individual it is very difficult affair.
A few individuals may succeed in increasing their incomes but all the persons
cannot do so. The public authority can also make deliberate decrease in its
income without feeling any difficulty. But for individuals, reduction in income
is very painful as they are used to certain standard of living.
7. Surplus Budgeting: For an individual,
excess of income over expenditure or surplus budgeting is considered to be a
virtue but for the public authority it is not as such, it is expected from the
government that it should raise only as much revenue as it needs during a
calendar year. After all what is the fun of showing persistently surplus
budgets? It is not better to give relief to the tax-payer than to show surplus
budgets.
8. Mystery shrouds Individual Finance:
Individuals finance is usually shrouded in mystery. Every body likes that his
financial position should remain a closely guarded secret but this is not the
case with public authorities. The government publishes its budget and gives due
publicity to it.