<![CDATA[This study examines fiscal dependence, expenditure composition, and local service capacity in urban village governance in Sekarbela District, Mataram, Indonesia. The study addresses a micro-level gap in fiscal decentralisation research, which has generally focused on provincial, district, or municipal governments while giving limited analytical attention to urban villages as front-line public-service units. A descriptive quantitative design was applied to secondary budget-realisation data from five urban villages - Kekalik Jaya, Tanjung Karang Permai, Tanjung Karang, Karang Pule, and Jempong Baru - over the 2019-2023 fiscal years. Financial performance was assessed using self-reliance, transfer-dependence, expenditure-composition, revenue-effectiveness, and spending-efficiency ratios. The findings reveal structurally weak fiscal autonomy: average self-reliance ratios range only from 2.22% to 2.86%, whereas transfer-dependence ratios remain extremely high at 97.14%-97.77%. Expenditure is dominated by operating spending, which accounts for 85.49%-90.80% of total expenditure, while capital expenditure remains limited at 5.55%-12.93%. Revenue effectiveness varies from 72.57% to 91.87%, and spending-efficiency ratios of 92.27%-95.62% indicate that budget absorption remains high relative to realised revenue. The results suggest that fiscal transfers maintain administrative continuity but have not yet produced sufficient own-source revenue, productive capital investment, or locally embedded economic capacity. The study contributes to decentralisation and public-finance scholarship by showing how micro-level fiscal ratios can be interpreted as indicators of service capacity, welfare orientation, and tourism-supporting local development. Strengthening asset mapping, community-enterprise development, transparent revenue mobilisation, and performance-based budgeting is essential for transforming transfer-dependent urban village budgets into inclusive instruments of local service improvement.]]>
