The objectives of this study are –- a) a comprehensive assessment of the Excise Policy of a State, comprising both regulatory and taxation policies; b) an assessment of the State tax structure on alcoholic beverages, comprising both State excise and sales tax on alcoholic beverages; c) an assessment of processes and procedures of State Excise administration; d) an assessment of State tax revenue from alcoholic beverages vis-à-vis sales (in volume) – estimation of the effective tax rate (ETR) of different types of alcoholic beverages.

This study will not only develop State-specific suggestions for reforms in alcohol tax policies but also provide ‘best management practices’ in regulating and administering the possession, production, distribution, and sales of alcoholic beverages across States. These outcomes could significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of alcohol tax policies and administration. Streamlining processes and procedures in State excise administration is always desirable to improve tax compliance and efficiency.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumption patterns and their implications for public policy in India. It seeks to inform taxation strategies for intoxicants by analysing consumer responses to prices and identifying factors influencing consumption habits, ultimately helping to design interventions that encourage healthier choices. Furthermore, the research intends to quantify the healthcare costs associated with intoxicant consumption, providing crucial data for public health planning. Finally, leveraging the extensive data from the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES): 2022-23 of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the study will assess the distributional impact of GST across various consumer groups and estimate States’ revenue potential based on consumption expenditure, thereby supporting evidence-based economic policymaking.

― Paper 1: Price, Cross-Price and Income Elasticity of Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages in India (based on NSSO’s HCES: 2022-23 and the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) database of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE))

― Paper 2: Price, Cross-Price and Income Elasticity of Consumption of Tobacco and Tobacco Products in India (based on NSSO’s HCES: 2022-23 and CMIE’s CPHS database)

― Paper 3: Assessment of Distributional Impact of GST in India based on NSSO’s HCES 2022-23

― Paper 4: Factors influencing households’ decision to quit or adopt consumption of alcoholic beverages in India (based on NSSO’s HCES: 2022-23 and CMIE’s CPHS database)

― Paper 5: Factors influencing households’ decision to quit or adopt consumption of tobacco and tobacco products in India (based on NSSO’s HCES: 2022-23 and CMIE’s CPHS database)

― Paper 6: The relationship between consumption of intoxicants and households’ health expenditure (based on NSSO’s HCES: 2022-23 and CMIE’s CPHS database)

The objective of the programme is to provide research and consultancy to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) on issues including but not restricted to crypto assets, financial vulnerability, regulatory framework of Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFIs), climate risk disclosure framework, impact of AI on financial market stability, State finances, sovereign credit ratings and strengthening collaboration with various Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

It is almost a decade since India transited to formal Inflation Targeting (IT) regime on 20 February 2015 through an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of India, with the commitment to achieve CPI inflation of 4 percent with a band of +/− 2 percent in the medium term.  Conceptually, under this rule-based monetary policy regime, forward-looking expectation plays the pivotal role for transmitting monetary policy shock to the real side of the economy. In an inflationary scenario, when the central bank hikes its policy rate under the IT regime, households and firms knowing that central bank’s action will stabilize the inflation rate at the target in near future, also moderate their future perception about inflation in the economy, thereby reducing the current inflation rate (Gali and Gertler, 2007; Gali, 2008). Hence the success of the IT regime crucially depends on the existence of expectation channel of monetary policy transmission (MPT) in an economy. This study intends to investigate whether monetary policy shock, under both conventional and unconventional monetary policy tools, transmits to the real side of the economy via the expectations channel. The Reserve Bank of India’s survey-based household inflation expectation captures this channel in our analysis. 

This study aims to provide insights on how subnational governments respond to increased transfers for health from the Central Government. Specifically, it tries to examine whether State Governments have reoriented the composition of their own health spending with the introduction of the National Health Mission. The study is based on an analysis of six States over the period 2005-06 to 2022-23.