A higher rate of (effective) tax on employees’ compensation (return to labour) than on operating surplus (return to composite capital) not only affects labour demand adversely, but also reinforces the nudge to deepen capital. Moreover, a narrow applicability of the recent amendments to the Minimum Wage Act 1948 unhinges the wage expectation of workers and adversely affects labour supply. To facilitate stable growth of GDP in accordance with competitive advantage, this paper suggests (a) rebalancing the tax arena that currently favours value addition from capital to that from labour, (b) eliminating labour-input thresholds to enforce laws and smoothen labour demand schedule, and (c) rationalizing the procedure for right-sizing the minimum remuneration to anchor wage expectations and promote labour supply.

A considerable amount of research is being undertaken on the attitudes of taxpayers towards tax policy and tax administration and their influence on compliance.  It is being argued that the compliance behaviour of taxpayers is influenced by a variety of factors like intrinsic attitudes towards tax compliance, social norms, as well as the ability of the taxpayer to control their behaviour.  In India, this space is not yet explored.  This study proposes to document the attitudes and perceptions of people regarding compliance with respect to income tax in India.  Such studies can help identify issues that taxpayers might respond to, in order to improve tax compliance.

This study analyses changes in the revenues and expenditures of major states of India in 2020-21 vis-a-vis 2019-20 (the reference year). On revenues, we examine component-wise changes and transfers from the Central government. On expenditures, we carry out analysis at the sectoral level to understand varied response across states in protecting social sector spending vis-a-vis spending in economic sectors during the pandemic. Aggregate data provided by the CAG, Monthly Civil Accounts compiled by the office of the Principal Auditor General (PAG) in states and revised figures provided in state budgets are used to draw conclusions.

Providing compiled information on state finances to faculty in soft copy immediately after the presentation of Budgets, till 2022-23.

Making the information available online.