The project involves a detailed review of the international tax dispute resolution mechanisms in India and an international comparison of best practices to find ways to improve the dispute resolution system in India.

The report was part of an overarching study on Assam State Finances. The report analysed Public expenditure management system of Assam including budget management processes and systems, compliance of the Government to various objectives of the fiscal rules, resource management, internal audit and control mechanism, accounting and reporting, and procurement systems. The report suggested reform measures to bring in performance orientation to the budgeting environment, multi-year spending perspective, strengthening fiscal rules, inculcating transparency and hard budget constraint, improving prioritization in spending pattern and improving technical efficiency. 

Post pandemic budget management requires securing and using resources effectively, efficiently and transparently, given the prevailing economic distress and revenue shortfall.  Failure to implement the budgets as planned may result in the shifting of spending priorities, exceeding of deficit targets, and compromising on critical service delivery promises. This issue has become more important as a deepening economic slowdown has put government finances under stress. This paper assesses the budget credibility of states in India to explain their ability to implement planned activities and respond to fiscal stress. It also focuses on strengthening the institutional framework to utilize fiscal instruments optimally for better service delivery and development.

The aim is to find answers to current macroeconomic policy choices, given various external shocks, through policy simulation exercises. Simulations of the impact of external shocks on growth, inflation, external and fiscal balance will be worked out, based on a re-estimation of the NIPFP macro-econometric model, using latest data.  One of the questions of interest is the impact of the FRBM roadmap proposed by the Fifteenth Finance Commission, on macro-outcomes.

The choice of capital and investment decisions by corporations depend on the different treatment of debt and equity. This project provides a detailed review of tax treatment of instruments and its impact on the economy.

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.

The Central Government initiated a country-wide health insurance scheme for the bottom 40 per cent of population through the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). This flagship scheme is expected to attract a significant amount of public spending in the next couple of years. We examine the accessibility to the scheme and claims in the first three years to highlight the emerging contours and their implications for the fiscal burden as well as the effectiveness of public spending on the scheme.