One common thing in everybody’s life is public services. Yet we do not know much about public services. We would stay mum if someone asked us questions like, who provides public services? Who funds public services? Why does the Government feel that public services are important to citizens?

Well, to answer all these questions we need to grasp some important information about public services.

A percentage of our tax revenue is used to pay for public services that we utilise, day in and day out. The amount paid can vary from state to state and also depends upon the ruling Government.

The services that are termed as public services in a country depend on what the citizens expect from their Government.

Public services are provided by the local Government. These services are essential for citizens because they support the Government. Earlier the private sector was unwilling to invest and lend a helping hand in improving the quality of public services. They backed out because of infrastructure costs and public services did not make that much of profits either.

Actually there is no hard rule that Governments have to provide public services to their citizens. Making a provision for public services has been popular from before in politics and therefore is a common practice today.

Any service which is the sole responsibility of the Government and which is opposed by the private sector is a public service. Police departments, fire departments, educational institutions, health services, infrastructure development, sanitation, gas, military and so on can be considered as public services. Public services can be made private services if wished by the Government. The process of turning public services into private services is called Privatisation. However only few services can be privatised and offer high quality service. Privatisation is carried out for few services which are usually used by few people.

The Government provides these services for your benefit so that you make best use of it and do not vandalise it.