This research aims to find the tendency fiscal illusion’s existence in regencies/cities of South Sumatera Province during the period 2012 – 2018. In addition to detecting fiscal illusions, the study aims to determine the factors that explain the estimated value of detected fiscal illusions. To detect fiscal illusions, the study uses 3 approaches divided into 3 models, namely revenue enhancement, expenditure manipulations, and debt utilization. The sample of this research is 15 regencies/cities in South Sumatra Province. The analytical method used is panel data regression. The results of this study show that there was a fiscal illusion detected in regencies/cities of South Sumatera Province in the 2012-2018 period through the expenditure manipulation approach. Besides that, the test results also show that all variables in the expenditure manipulation approach affect and are able to explain the detected fiscal illusion.