States' Share in Central Taxes
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www.ijemr.net ISSN (ONLINE): 2250-0758, ISSN (PRINT): 2394-6962 Volume-5, Issue-4, August-2015 International Journal of Engineering and Management Research Page Number: 48-56 States’ Share in Central Taxes Dr. Priyanka Banerji (PhD, NET, M.Com, PGDBA, PGDCA), Dehradun, INDIA ABSTRACT function of Finance Commission is to make India is a large country with a variety of fiscal and recommendations regarding the following: regional development programmes which are introduced time (i) The distribution of net proceeds of taxes that are to time to promote regional equity and spatial development. ‘to be’ or ‘may be’ shared between the Union and the In federal fiscal set-up, resources are generally assigned more States and the allocation of shares of such proceeds to the Central Government on grounds of both equity and amongst the States. efficiency whereas States together with the local governments have the larger responsibilities. Therefore, ‘the Centre–State (ii) The principles which should govern the payment by the relations are crucial to the preservation of the unity and Union of grants-in-aid to the revenues of the States. integrity of India within the framework of its linguistic, (iii) Any other matter covering financial relations between the cultural and other dimensions’. Union and the States. The main thrust of development strategy has to The appointment of Finance Commission is focus on regional policies and the mechanisms of financial hence, of great importance for minimizing the vertical as transfers so that lagging States are provided fiscal resources well as horizontal fiscal imbalances between the Centre as per their fiscal needs. In view of the noteworthy fiscal and the States and amongst the States respectively. devolution and transfers have significant implications for Share of Centre and States in Revenue Receipts of various balanced regional development in India in an environment of economic reforms and globalization. Central transfers Finance Commissions is given in Table 1.1. The share of constitute a significant part of State finances. States in total transfers as percentage of revenue receipts peaked in the period of Ninth Finance Commission at Keywords---- Center-State Relations, Planning slightly above 39 per cent of Centre’s gross revenue Commission, Finance Commission, Union of grants-in-aid, receipts. In case of the Twelfth Finance Commission, the Tax Sharing, Centre to the States vis-à-vis Income Tax and total transfers have gone up again crossing 40 per cent. Union Excise Duties Table also shows that there is a progressive increase in the share of States in total revenue receipts over the period however, the corresponding share of the States in the combined revenue and total expenditures do not show a similar increasing pattern. I. STATES’ SHARE IN CENTRAL TAXES In federal fiscal set-up, resources are generally assigned more to the Central Government on grounds of both equity and efficiency whereas States together with the local governments have the larger responsibilities. Therefore, ‘the Centre–State relations are crucial to the preservation of the unity and integrity of India within the framework of its linguistic, cultural and other dimensions’. For this purpose, Finance Commission is appointed by the President, under the provisions of Article 280 of the Constitution, for the specific purpose of devolution of non-plan revenue resources. Hence, the 48 Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved. www.ijemr.net ISSN (ONLINE): 2250-0758, ISSN (PRINT): 2394-6962 Share of States of total transfers is shown in Table 1.2. The share of southern States in total transfers has fallen down from 27.86 per cent in Third Finance Commission to 18.36 per cent in Twelfth Finance Commission. Similarly, there is a declining trend in the In India, there is a wide disparity in the share of higher income States however, lower income devolution of taxes from Centre to States. Tax devolution States have gained from the fiscal transfers by the Finance has a built in flexibility as it can increase automatically if Commissions. The share of lower income States was the Central taxes are more buoyant and States have also reported 45.87 per cent during Third Finance Commission. expressed a preference for devolution because by It increased to 56.43 per cent in Twelfth Finance definition, it is unconditional and comes to the States as a Commission. Similarly, the share of special category matter of right. States also increased from 6.25 per cent in Third Finance This paper deals with the recommendations of the Commission to 15.97 per cent in Ninth Finance various Finance Commissions regarding the two major Commission. sources of revenue from the Centre to the States vis-à-vis Income Tax and Union Excise Duties. Whereas the sharing of the former is compulsory, the constitutional distribution of the latter is optional. To examine the inter-state disparities, ‘Thiele-T statistics method’ has been used with the help of the following formula: II. DETERMINING SHARES OF STATES Up till the Seventh Finance Commission, the formula used for determining the shares of income tax was 49 Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved. www.ijemr.net ISSN (ONLINE): 2250-0758, ISSN (PRINT): 2394-6962 clearly distinct from those of Union Excise Duties. Table 1.3: Distribution of Net Proceeds of Income Tax Population and collection/assessment were the only two under the Recommendations of Various Finance criteria used for determining the inter-se shares of the Commissions states in the case of income tax up to the Seventh Finance Commission. In respect of Union Excise Duty the criteria placed greater emphasis on factors relating to economic backwardness with fiscal weakness of the States. It was with the beginning with the Eighth Finance Commission two changes occurred. First, there was a move towards unifying the formulae for the inter-se distribution of both income tax and union excise duty. Secondly, a portion of the union excise duty was kept aside for distribution according to assessed deficits of States after the devolution of central taxes. This practice was continued by the Ninth and Tenth Finance Commission. However, the Eleventh Finance Commission in the interest of transparency had decided to discontinue the practice of keeping any portion of shareable taxes separately for distribution among the States with assessed deficits. Therefore, Thiele-T statistics has been used upto Tenth Finance Commissions separately to examine the behavior of inter-state disparities regarding income tax and union excise duty. 1. An Analysis of States’ in Income Tax Proceeds From Table 1.3, it is obvious that the States’ share in the divisible income tax has increased steadily from about 55 per cent, as recommended by First Finance Commission to 85 per cent under the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Finance Commissions. However, this share has been reduced to 77.5 per cent under the Tenth Finance Commission. Further from Table 1.3, it is also obvious that the First, Third and Fourth Finance Commissions have been given greater Weightage to tax collection, i.e. 20 per cent and 80 per cent to population. Hence, States like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are the gainers. However, in the Second, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Finance Commissions, population criterion has been given a higher weightage, i.e. 90 per cent over tax collection which was kept low at 10 per cent. Hence, more populous and backward States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, and Rajasthan are the gainers. However, these gains were not proportionate to their backwardness (Table 1.4). It is in place to mention that the weightage given to tax contribution got stabilized at 10 per cent since the Fifth Finance Commission. 50 Copyright © 2011-15. Vandana Publications. All Rights Reserved. www.ijemr.net ISSN (ONLINE): 2250-0758, ISSN (PRINT): 2394-6962 Table 1.4: States’ Share in Income Tax as compared to all previous Commissions. This is because Recommended by four new States namely, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Finance Commissions Meghalaya and Tripura have been included in the divisible pool. Since, these States are small States, their respective shares are too low (0.60%, 0.18% and 0.27% respectively), hence the disparities have widened because there was no way to increase the total share either by the way of revenue equalization or through separate quota devolution (Table 1.4). Under the Seventh Finance Commission, Sikkim was the only State which was newly included with its low share at 0.035 per cent, hence, the disparities widened, but only marginally by 1 per cent (Table 1.5). As it is evident from Table 1.3, for the first time a new formula for the distribution of tax proceeds amongst States is adopted by the Eighth Finance Commission. It introduced two new criterions and hence the lower per capita income States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam (at 1988-89 prices) have received larger shares. On the other hand, States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana have lost their shares in the divisible pool. Hence, the disparities increased further (Table 1.4). Under the Ninth Finance Commission, inclusion of three new States, Arunachal Pradesh (0.073%), Goa (0.110%) and Mizoram (0.073%) and the new criterion have tended to increase the disparities. Inspite of the new criterion have tended to increase the disparities. In spite of the new criterion under which 11.25 per cent weightage has been given to Composite Index of backwardness, there was no substantial change in the shares of States like Uttar Notes: @ included under Maharashtra, @@ included Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan under Punjab, # includes Haryana & Chandigarh, (Table 1.4).